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Hiotographic 

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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  canadien  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


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0 


D 
D 
D 
D 
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0 

D 


Coloured  covers/ 
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I      I    Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagde 

Covers  restored  and/or  'aminated/ 
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This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  filmd  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu6  ci-dessous. 

10X  14X  18X  22X 


26X 


30X 


7_ 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


tails 
(  du 
odifier 
une 
mage 


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to  the  generosity  of: 

La  Bibliothdque  de  la  Ville  de  Montreal 


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whichever  applies. 

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L'exemplaire  film6  fut  reproduit  grdce  d  la 
g6n6rosit6  de: 

La  Bibliotheque  de  la  Ville  de  Montreal 


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conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  ccntrat  de 
filmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimde  sont  filmds  en  commen^ant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
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originaux  sont  filmds  en  commenpant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  — ►  signifie  "A  SUiVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
film6s  d  des  taux  de  reduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clich6,  il  est  film6  d  parti" 
de  Tangle  supdrieur  gauche,  de  gauche  i  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas.  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  m^thode. 


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St  Amne  of  Isle  LMMot  ? 


la 


LAKE  CHAMPLAIN. 


Its  History,  Rules  of  the  Confraternity, 
Prayers,  Novena  to  St.  Anne. 


A- 

■%■■ 


'1 

'  ■* 

By  Rev.  J.  Kerlidou. 

rt 

Alburg,  Verniont 

|H|                    BURI^INGTON: 

^B        VRHH  PRESS  ASSOCIATION 

^B                               1895. 

^i'JI^B^    ■'/ 

1    BiBLlOJNtQUE    1 

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Mr.- 


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of 


FORT  ST.   ANXK. 


TICKET  OF  ADMISSION. 


Mr.. 


IS  ADMITTED  IN  THE  CONFRATERNITY 


OF 


ST.  ANNE  IN  ISIvE  LA  MOTTE, 


Erected  March  nth,  1895,  ^Y  ^^^  Bishop  of  Bur- 
lington aggregated  to  the  Arch  Confraternity 
of  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre.  / 


E 


i STATUTES  OF  THE  CONFRATERNITY  OF 
ST.  ANNE  ERECTED  IN  ISLE  LA  MOTTE, 
VERMONT. 


The  end  of  this  confraternity  is  to  honor  St. 
Anne,  to  obtain  an  increase  of  devotion  and  con- 
fidence towards  her  and  obtain  the  conversion  to 
Catholic  faith  of  those  who  do  not  belong  to  it. 

The  vSeat  of  the  confraternity  to  be  the  shrine 
of  St.  Anne  already  existing  in  Isle  La  Motte. 

The  director  of  this  confraternity  is  for  the 
present  Rev.  Joseph  Kerlidou,  residing  in  Al- 
burg. 

The  Bishop  is  at  liberty  to  appoint  whatever 
director  he  pleases. 

All  Catholics  may  become  members  of  this  con- 
fraternity by  having  their  names  inscribed  in  its 
register  which  will  be  in  keeping  by  the  director. 

The  members  will  endeavor  to  honor  St.  Anne 
by  attending  all  the  practices  of  piety  suggested 
by  the  director. 

They  are  desired  to  wear  a  medal  of  St.  Anne 
and  to  have  in  their  house  a  picture  of  this  great 
Saint,  and  to  recite  every  day  one  Our  Father  and 


three  Hail  Marys  for  all  the  associates,  and  the 
ends  of  the  confraternity  ;  also  to  say  three  times 
Good  St.  Anne  pray  for  us. 

The  above  Statutes  of  the  confraternity  of  St. 
Anne  established  in  Isle  La  Motte,  Vt.,  are  by 
me  approved  this  day,  the  eleventh  of  March 
1895. 


Hh  LOUIS, 

Bishop  of  Burlington,  Vt. 


and  the 
'ee  times 


ty  of  St. 
,  are  b>' 
f  March 


:ton,  Vt. 


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rMAC'.l«;  (U'  ST.  ANNH. 


5 


INOVENA  AND  PRAYERS  TO  ST.  ANNE. 


y 


(As  the  feavSt  of  St.  Anne  occurs  on  July  26th, 
llie  following  Novena  may  be  begun  July  iStli  :) 

A  Novena  to  St.  Anne  is  an  excellent  method 
[)f  obtaining,  through  her  intercCvSsion  both  tem- 
[)oral  and  spiritual  graces,  particularly  that  of  ad- 
ancing  in  the  practice  of  Christian  virtue. 

The  following  exercises  may  be  UvSed  during 

this  Novena.     ist.     A  meditation  every  morning 

Du  the  virtues  of  St.  Anne.  2d.  Through  the  day 

lo   make  frequent   aspirations  to  St.  Anne  and 

^lary  Immaculate  ;  the  Immaculate  Conception  of 

I  Mary  redounds  to  the  honor  of  her  holy  mother  ; 

and  nothing  is  more  agreeable  to  St.  Anne  than 

pur  honoring  that  privilege  of  her  augUvSt  daugh- 

ller.      3d.     To    practice    interior    mortification  ; 

for  example,   to  abstain  from  seeing  or  hearing 

llirough  curiosity  only,  to   live  retired,  to  keep 

Isilence,  to  support  the  contradictions  of  life  with 

[patience  ;  also  it  would  l)e  well  to  practice  some 

L'xterior  mortification.     4th.     To  try  and  correct 

[faults  of  dispOvSition.     5th.     The   bCvSt   of  all  is 

[Holy  Communion,  which  should  be  received  as 

frequently  as  is  permitted  by  the  spiritual  director. 


6 


EXERCISES. 


FIRST  DAY. 


i   I 


DIGNITY  AND  MERIT  OF  ST.  ANNE. 

I  St.  She  is  the  mother  of  the  Mother  of  God. 
2d.  Testimony  of  St.  John  Damascene.  3d. 
Graces  that  her  holy  Daughter  drew  down  on 
her. 

I  St.  The  Holy  Ghost  in  pronouncing  the  praise 
of  the  Holy  Virgin,  onl}'^  makes  use  of  these 
words  :  Maria  de  qua  natus  est  Jesus  qui  vacatur 
Christus  ;  Mary^  from  whom  was  horn  Jesus  who 
was  called  Christ,  Thus  the  greatest  honor  we 
can  pay  to  St.  Anne,  is  to  say  that  of  her  was  born 
the  Immaculate  Virgin  Mary  the  Mother  of  God. 

This  august  quality  includes  all  others,  and  is, 
in  itself,  the  highest  praise. 

2d.  *'If  the  tree  is  kngwn  b)'^  its  fruit,  what  a 
high  idea,"  exclaims  St.  John  Damascene, 
"must  we  not  conceive  of  the  innocence  and  sub- 
lime virtue  of  the  blessed  Joachim  and  Anna  !  0 
blessed  couple,  Joachim  and  Anna,  the  fruit  which 
you  brought  forth  makes  us  know  how  spotless 
your  life  was. '  * 

3d.  To  the  treasures  of  grace  and  virtue  with 
which  St.  Anne  was  already  enriched,  let  us  add 
those  which  the  Blessed  Virgin  must  have  brought 


her  at  the  instant  of  her  Immaculate  Conception, 
and  those  she  drew  down  during  the  nine  months 
she  passed  in  her  mother's  womb.  If,  at  the  mo- 
ment St.  John  was  sanctified  in  his  mother's 
womb,  the  son's  holiness  acted  so  powerfully  on 
St.  Elizabeth,  it  is  easy  to  understand  what  treas- 
ures of  benedictions  and  what  abundance  of  graces 
the  Blessed  Virgin  must  have  procured  for  St. 
Anne  at  the  moment  of  her  Immaculate  Concep- 
tion. Hpw  supernaturally,  too,  must  that  moth- 
er's spirit  have  been  enlightened  !  O  great  Saint, 
we  rejoice,  with  St.  John  Damascene,  at  the  mar- 
vels which  the  Lrord  worked  in  thee:  "Happy 
indeed  art  thou,  and  happy  is  the  fruit  of  thy 
womb  !" 

Practice. — Recite  nine  "Hail  Marys"  in  honor 
of  the  time  the  Blessed  Virgin  dwelt  in  her  moth- 
er's womb. 

See  other  prayers. 


SECOND  DAY. 

DKVOTION  TO  ST.  ANNE. 

We  ought  to  love  and  honor  St.  Anne.  ist.  On 
account  of  her  sublime  dignity  and  power.  2d. 
Because  this  devotion  is  very  pleasing  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin.  3d.  Because  it  is  a  source  of  graces 
to  ourselves. 

I  St.  All  the  saints  merit  our  homage,  respect, 
love  and  confidence  ;  but  among  all  the  Saints 


a 


8 


who  after  the  Queen  of  Heaven  and  her  holy 
spouse,  better  merits  these  than  St.  Anne  !  What 
a  high  place  must  she  now  occupy  in  Heaven  ! 
What  influence  must  she  not  have  with  the  son 
of  her  holy  daughter,  with  the  Father  of  Mercies, 
who  wrought  such  great  things  in  her  ?  Happy 
the  faithful  who  have  such  a  protectress  in 
Heaven. 

2d.  Honoring  St.  Anne  is  one  of  the  best  ways 
of  pleasing  the  BleSvSed  Virgin,  who  takes  singu- 
lar pleasure  in  seeing  her  children  pay  honor  and 
respect  to  that  mother,  to  whom,  "after  God,  she 
owes  everything, "  as  is  said  in  a  revelation  niade 
by  her  to  one  of  her  faithful  servants.  She  her- 
self, says  a  pious  author,  is  continually  offering 
thanksgiving  to  God  for  having  given  her  so  holy 
and  perfect  a  mother. 

3d.  God  himself,  who  so  highly  honored  St. 
Anne,  by  raising  her  to  the  dignity  of  mother  to 
His  only  Son's  mother,  loves  to  see  Christians 
offering  a  tribute  of  love  and  respect  to  her.  He 
shows  it  by  granting  all  that  is  asked  through  her 
intercession.  How  many  sick  have  found  health 
at  the  feet  of  St.  Anne  !  How  many  afflicted  have 
there  found  consolation  !  How  many  sinners  owe 
their  return  to  God  to  her  pleading  !  Happy  the 
souls  who  have  a  true  devotion  to  this  great  Saint! 
Many  have  acknowledged  that,  since  they  have 
entered  into  associations  in  her  honor,  the  most 
wonderful  change  has  taken  place  in  them.         ^ 

Practice, — Frequently  invoke  St.  Anne,  espec- 
ially in  the  time  of  trouble  and  temptation.  Honor 


9 


[her  CvSpecially  on  Tuesday's,  the  day  held  in  re- 
membrance as  that  of  her  birth  and  her  death,  if 
possible  in  this  intention,  hear  mass  and  receive 
holy  communion. 

Prayers  as  on  page  20. 


THIRD  DAY. 

ST.  ANNK'S  SPIRIT  OF  PRAYER  AND  RECOI.I.ECTION. 

I  St.  In  her  infancy  ;  2ndly,  when  she  became 
St.  Joachim's  wife  ;  3rdly,  from  the  conception  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin  until  her  own  death. 

I  St.  From  her  earliest  childhood  St.  Anne 
vShowed  an  extraordinary  amount  of  wisdom, 
modesty  and  piety  ;  retirement  and  prayer  had 
marvellous  attractions  for  her.  Even  those  inno- 
cent amusements  which  were  natural  to  her  age 
and  position  never  appeared  to  please  her.  So 
g^eat  was  her  recoUectedness,  that  it  inspired  de- 
votion in  all  who  saw  her.  This  example  con- 
demns those  light  and  inconsiderate  persons  who 
only  take  pleasure  in  the  frivolous  amusements  of 
the  world. 

2d.  The  virtues  which  had  distinguished  St. 
Anne  when  she  was  a  child,  shone  with  still 
brighter  lustre  when  she  became  the  spouse  of 
the  most  holy  man  who  then  lived.  These  two 
holy  spouses  were  perfect  models  of  domestic  life. 
Joachim  on  the  mountain,  says  St.  Epiphanus, 
and  Anne  retired  in  her  own  house,  were  continu- 


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10 


ally  offering  themselves  to  the  Lord  in  the  fervor 
of  prayer.  St.  Anne  passed  five  or  six  hours  a 
day  in  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  she  con- 
secrated a  part  of  the  night  to  prayer. 

3d.  From  the  time  that  she  had  the  happiness 
of  carrying  in  her  chaste  womb  her  Immaculate 
Daughter,  the  life  of  St.  Anne  was  passed  in  con- 
tinual contemplation,  and  her  conversation  was 
entirely  in  heaven.  The  years  of  her  widowhood 
were  passed  in  constant  prayer,  until,  consumed 
with  divine  love,  she  fell  asleep  in  the  Lord,  ac- 
cording to  the  language  of  the  church  in  the  office 
for  the  day  of  her  feast. 

Practice. — Enter  some  confraternity  established 
in  her  honor.     Propagate  devoti.^n  to  St.  Anne, 

Prayers  as  on  page  20. 


FOURTH  DAY. 

HKR  CONFIDENCE  IN  GOD. 

ist.  St.  Anne  strengthened  herself  in  this  vir- 
tue from  her  earliest  years  ;  2ndly,  she  remained 
full  of  confidence  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest 
trials  ;  3rdly,  how  God  rewarded  her  confidence. 

I  St.  Confidence  in  God  is,  according  to  the 
language  of  Scripture,  the  measure  of  those  graces 
which  the  Lord  vouchsafes  to  us.  "Let  thy 
mercy.  Oh  Lord,"  says  King  David,  '*be  upon 
us  as  we  have  hoped  in  Thee."  St.  Bernard 
compares  it  to  a  vase  dipped   in  an  overflowing 


11 


fountain  ;  and  larger  the  vase,  the  greater  the 
amount  of  water  that  is  carried  away  in  it.  In 
the  same  way,  the  greater  the  confidence  with 
which  we  present  ourselves  before  the  Lord,  the 
greater  and  more  abundant  are  the  graces  we 
obtain.  Constantly  meditating  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, St.  Anne  early  understood  the  necessity  and 
excellence  of  this  virtue.  By  constant  efforts, 
she  arrived  at  such  a  high  state  of  perfection  in 
the  practice  of  this  virtue  that  she  drew  down  the 
most  extraordinary  graces  on  her  soul. 

2d.  To  render  this  virtue  still  more  pure,  God 
sent  many  severe  trials  to  St.  Anne.  For  more 
than  twenty  years  was  she  married  without  hav- 
ing any  children.  This  barrenness  was  a  re- 
proach among  the  Jews.  St.  Anne  frequently 
found  herself  reviled  for  this  and  even  publicly; 
but  these  htimiliations  only  served  to  render  more 
complete  her  self-abandonment  to  the  will  of  God. 
So  great  was  her  confidence,  says  St.  Peter  Chris- 
ologus,  that  it  worked  miracles. 

3d.  Whilst  fervently  praying  in  the  temple,  one 
day,  the  ignominy  of  her  state  moved  her  to  tears; 
she  then  remembered  that  Anne,  the  mother  of 
Samuel,  finding  herself  in  similar  circumstances, 
had  prayed  with  such  confidence  and  ardor,  that 
her  prayers  had  been  heard.  Animated  by  the 
same  spirit,  St.  Anne  ardently  besought  the  Lord 
to  vouchsafe  to  cast  a  favorable  eye  on  His  hand- 
maid, promising,  that  if  she  became  a  mother,  she 
would  consecrate  her  child  to  Him  by  devoting  it 
to  the  service  of  the  temple.     A  few  days  after- 


-M-t 

Iff- 


:  I 


i  ■' 


12 


wards  it  was  revealed  to  her  that  her  prayer  was 
granted.     Promise  to  imitate  the  confidence  of  St. 
Anne.    Remain  quietly  in  God's  hands  in  the  time 
of  trial,  and  never  lose  courage. 
Prayer  as  on  page  20. 


FIFTH  DAY. 


CHASTITY   OF   ST.    ANNK. 


We  know  this;  ist.  By  a  revelation  to  St. 
Bridget.  2d.  By  means  of  reason  aided  by  faith. 
3d.     By  the  testimony  of  the  Saints. 

ist.  St.  Vincent  Ferrier  says,  "We  cannot 
doubt  the  chastity  of  those  holy  spouses  Joachim 
and  Anne."  It  was  revealed  one  day  to  St. 
Bridget,  by  the  Blessed  Virgin,  that  her  holy 
parents  had  practiced  that  lovely  virtue  to  a  sub- 
lime degree,  and  that  they  would  have  preferred 
death  to  transgressing  it.  She  added  that  they 
had  onl}'^  embraced  the  marriage  state  because 
they  were  ordered  to  do  so  by  Heaven. 

2d.  The  holy  Fathers  say  that  it  was  only 
chastity  which  could  have  rendered  Joachim  and 
Anne  worthy  of  becoming  the  parents  of  the  Virgin 
of  virgins.  The  flower  of  virginity,  the  Immacu- 
late Mary,  could  indeed  have  only  sprung  from 
the  holiest  marriage  in  the  world.  The  Holy 
Ghost  could  not  have  formed  the  mystic  temple  of 
the  august  Trinity  in  other  than  a  chaste  womb; 


13 


for  it  is  in  those  that  cherish  this  virtue  that  he 
takes  delight,  says  St.  Epiphanus. 

3d.  St.  John  Damascene  in  the  congratulations 
which  he  offers  to  St.  Joachim  and  St.  Anne 
says:  *'Oh  blessed  couple,  Joachim  and  Anne,  we 
must  judge  of  your  purity  by  the  immaculate 
fruit  which  you  gave  to  the  world  !  Whilst  lead- 
ing a  chaste  and  holy  life  you  gave  to  the  world 
the  treasure  of  virginity  !" 

Practice. — Have  a  special  affection  for  the  beau- 
tiful virtue  of  chastity.  By  that  virtue  it  was  that 
St.  Anne  merited  the  signal  favor  of  becoming  the 
mother  of  the  Immaculate  Virgin.  Keep  your 
heart  disengaged  from  all  love  of  creatures  which 
may  prevent  its  being  entirely  given  up  to  God. 

Prayers  as  on  page  20. 


SIXTH  DAY. 

ST.  ANNE'S   I.OVK   FOR   GOD. 


s- 


I  St,  It  was  manifested  from  her  earliest  youth; 
2ndly,  it  became  perfect  through  trial;  3rdly,  it 
was  ever  increasing. 

I  St.  Possessing  these  high  graces  which  make 
the  greatest  saints,  St.  Anne  began  to  love  God 
from  her  earliest  years.  She  only  thought  to 
please  and  glorify  Him  in  all  things.  In  order 
the  better  to  know  His  will,  she  took  care  to  ob- 
serve silence  and  interior  recollection,  carefully 


..r 


14 


watching  over  her  thoughts  and  affections,  in 
order  that  nothing  human  might  take  that  place 
in  her  heart,  which  she  wished  to  reserve  for 
Divine  Love  alone. 

2d.  God  allows  his  most  faithful  servants  to 
be  exposed  to  the  severest  trials,  in  order  to  render 
their  love  more  pure  and  ardent.  These  trials 
were  not  wanting  to  St.  Joachim  and  St.  Anne. 
The  two  holy  spouses  often  had  to  endure  scorn 
and  this  even  publicly.  Insults  of  whatever  kind 
only  served  to  detach  them  more  and  more  from 
the  world,  and  to  fix  their  hearts  more  and  more 
on  God.  They  received  these  trials  from  the 
hands  of  the  Lord  with  perfect  submission  to  His 
holy  will. 

3d.  St.  Anne's  love,  already  so  pure  and  strong, 
increased  continually  during  the  nine  months  that 
she  had  the  happiness  of  bearing  the  Immaculate 
Mary  in  her  womb.  From  that  time  her 
heart  was  a  very  furnace  of  love,  and  her  life  was 
passed  in  perpetual  contemplation,  till  she  fell 
asleep  in  the  Lord. 

Practice, — Keep  alive  in  your  heart  great  de- 
sire to  love  the  Lord  more  and  more.  The  prin- 
cipal marks  of  the  love  of  God  are,  avoiding  all 
voluntary  sins  and  patience  under  trial. 

Prayers  as  on  page  20. 


16 


SEVENTH  DAY. 

ST.    ANNE'S   CHARITY   TOWAKDvS   HKR  NKIGIIDOR. 

ist.  It  was  thivS  charity  that  made  her  sigh 
after  the  coming  of  the  promised  Messiah;  2ndly, 
she  showed  it  by  procuring  her  neighbors'  spirit- 
ual welfare;  3rdly,  and  in  solacing  their  bodily 
afflictions. 

I  St.  One  of  the  best  known  virtues  of  St.  Anne 
was  her  charity  towards  her  neighbors.  It  was 
her  desire  to  contribute  towards  the  salvation  of 
men  that  made  her  sigh,  night  and  day,  after  the 
coming  of  the  promised  Messiah  who  had  been 
announced  by  the  prophets.  Joachim  on  the 
mountain,  said  St.  Epiphanus,  and  St.  Anne  in  the 
retirement  of  her  house,  were  incessantly  offering 
prayers  for  the  acceleration  of  the  redemption  of 
Israel. 

2d.  Everything  in  her  house  and  in  her  con- 
duct was  so  well  regulated,  that  everything  she 
did  was  a  cause  of  edification  to  others.  It  was 
her  custom  to  remain  retired,  constantly  occupied, 
either  in  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures,  or  in  the 
work  of  her  hands.  She  kept  silence  from  fear  of 
her  communings  with  God  being  troubled  by  use- 
less conversation.  Whenever  she  appeared  in 
public,  she  edified  all  who  beheld  her.  Her  re- 
serve, her  modesty,  her  words,  her  looks,  all  in- 
spired not  only  respect,  but  even  the  love  of  vir- 
tue. Even  her  appearance  inspired  devotion  in 
all  who  saw  her. 


ii 


I  ' ,  .1 


16 


3d.  Her  charity  with  regard  to  the  bodily  ne- 
cessities of  her  neighbor  was  equally  admirable. 
It  was  the  power  of  relieving  the  poor  that  con- 
soled her  in  her  barrenness.  St.  Jerome  tells  us 
that  Joachim  and  Anne  divided  their  revenues  into 
three  parts  :  one  was  destined  to  the  support  of 
the  ministers  of  the  temple,  another  to  the  relief 
of  travellers  and  poor,  and  only  the  third  was  re- 
served for  the  wants  of  the  household.  Her  great 
charity  made  her  look  upon  the  poor  as  her  own 
children  ;  and  they  always  found  a  mother  in  her 
and  shared  her  worldly  goods. 

Practice, — The  work  of  charity  that  is  most 
agreeable  to  God,  is  that  of  working  for  the  sal- 
vation of  souls.  Do  your  utmost,  according  to 
your  position  in  life,  by  word  and  deed,  by  sea- 
sonable advice,  etc.  Love  the  poor,  and  contri- 
bute to  the  embellishment  of  churches. 

Prayers  as  on  page  20. 


EIGHTH  DAY. 

ST.  ANNE'S  GKNEROSITY  IN  THK  SKRVICK  OP  GOD. 


This  virtue  shines  conspicuously^  in  St.  Anne. 

I  St.     In  the  mortifications  that  she  practised. 

2nd.  In  the  manner  in  which  she  supported 
the  death  of  her  mother. 

3rd.  In  the  sacrifice  she  made  of  her  daugh- 
ter. 


17 


.^5>^" 


I  St.  When  God  calls  any  one  to  a  high  degree 
of  virtue,  or  wishes  to  confide  to  them  some  ex- 
traordinary mission,  He  endows  them  with  a 
courageous  soul,  and  makes  them  capable  of  great 
sacrifices  ;  and  these  were  precisely  the  character- 
istics of  St.  Joachim  and  St.  Anne.  By  their  he- 
roic actions  they  equalled  the  greatest  patriarchs 
and  prophets.  St.  Germain  of  Constantinople 
says,  that,  like  Moses  and  Elias,  they  fasted  en- 
tirely for  forty  days.  St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  and 
St.  Andrew  of  Candia  add  that  their  fasts  were 
' '  '.ompanied  by  perpetual  tears. 

2d.  St.  Anne's  great  generosity  appeared  with 
great  lustre  on  the  death  of  her  mother  Emeren- 
tiana,  whom  she  tenderly  loved,  and  on  that  of 
her  holy  spouse  Joachim.  These  losses  were  in- 
deed great  trials  to  her  good  and  feeling  heart, 
but,  remembering  the  words  of  Ecclesiastes  :  '  'We 
ought  not  to  abandon  ourselves  to  grief  on  the 
death  of  those  dear  to  us,"  she  resigned  herself  to 
the  will  of  God. 

Following  the  example  of  the  holy  man  Job, 
who  did  not  murmur  at  the  reproaches  with  which 
his  friends  assailed  him  on  account  of  his  great 
patience,  Anne  never  allowed  a  word  of  complaint 
to  escape  her,  no  matter  what  insult  was  offered 
to  her. 

3d.  The  circumstance  which  the  most  fully  re- 
veals St.  Anne's  greatness  of  soul,  is  the  sacrifice 
she  made  of  her  admirable  daughter  when  only 
three  years  of  age.  She  had  promised  to  conse- 
crate the  child  that  God  should  send  her   to  His 


Ill 


I 


Ihi  I 


ml 


18 


service  in  the  temple.  The  time  being  arrived  for 
the  fulfillment  of  her  promise,  she  herself  took  her 
dear  child  and  leading  it  to  the  temple,  there  con- 
secrated it  to  God.  How  this  example  puts  us  to 
shame  when  we  draw  back  from  the  slightest  pri- 
vations ! 

Practice. — ^Impose  on  yourself  daily  some  mor- 
tification in  honor  to  St.  Anne.  The  best  are  those 
which  come  from  the  hands  of  God,  such  as  con- 
tradictions, sickness,  etc. 

Prayers  as  on  page  20. 


NINTH  DAY. 

ST".  ANNK  IS  THK  MODEL,   1ST  OF  WIVKS  ;  2ND,  OF 
MOTHERS  ;    3RD,  OF  WIDOWS. 

I  St.  It  might  almost  be  said  that  the  Holy  Ghost 
drew  a  portrait  of  St.  Anne  when  He  drew  the  one 
of  the  wise  woman.  One  thing  certain  is,  that  in 
whatever  state  of  life  we  consider  her,  her  life  is  a 
perfect  model  for  those  who  are  in  the  same  state. 
As  she  was  the  model  for  daughters,  so  she  was 
the  model  for  wives.  She  only  consented  to  be- 
come the  wife  of  Joachim  after  having,  by  fervent 
prayer,  obtained  the  grace  of  knowing  what  was 
really  the  will  of  God.  Never  was  there  a  hap- 
pier marriage,  for  both  had  the  same  inclination 
to  good,  the  same  virtue,  the  same  innocence. 
What  an  admirable  union!  St.  Anne  was,  in  every 
thing,  submissive  to  St.  Joachim,  and  he  always 


19 


anticipated  what   would  be   agreeable  to  Anne. 
Perfect  order  reigned  in  their  household. 

2d.  From  the  time  that  it  pleased  the  Lord  to 
give  her  a  child,  St.  Anne  became  the  model  of 
mothers.  Hardly  had  her  holy  daughter  entered 
the  world,  than  she  offered  her  to  the  Holy  Trini 
ty.  She  looked  on  her  as  a  precious  deposit  that 
had  been  confided  to  her,  and  of  which  she  would 
have  to  give  an  account.  Therefore,  what  care 
did  she  not  take  to  bring  her  up  and  teach  her  ! 
She  herself  taught  her  child  to  pray,  to  read  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  to  work  with  her  hands  ; 
more  than  all,  she  taught  her  by  means  of  a  good 
example.  By  going  herself  to  offer  her  holy 
daughter  in  the  temple  she  teaches  mothers  to 
make  the  sacrifice  of  their  children  when  the  Lord 
asks  it. 

3d.  Joachim  did  not  long  survive  the  consecra- 
tion they  had  made  to  God  of  their  daughter. 
We  are  told  that  he  died  shortly  after  in  the  arms 
of  St.  Anne  and  Mary. 

Our  saint  passed  the  years  of  her  widowhood  in 
still  greater  retirement  and  fervor.  Her  life  was 
one  continual  prayer,  an  example  worthy  of  being 
followed  by  all  who  find  themselves  in  similar  po- 
sition. 

Practice. — Consecrate  your  children  to  St.  Anne, 
and  beg  of  her  to  be  a  mother  to  them.  Have  a 
tender  devotion  towards  her  and  implore  her  pro- 
tection for  all  who  are  dear  to  you. 

Prayers  as  on  page  20. 


Ml 


L.  il 


20 


INVOCATIONS  TO  ST.  ANNE. 


St.  Anne. 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 
St.  Anne, 


mother  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

spouse  of  Joachim. 

comfort  of  married  persons. 

mother  of  widows. 

guide  of  Virgins. 

harbor  of  the  mariners. 

way  of  the  travellers. 

health  of  the  sick . 

light  of  the  blind. 

tongue  of  the  dumb. 

ear  of  the  deaf. 

help  of  all  who  call  upon  thee. 


>. 
u 


V.     God  loved  St.  Anne. 

R.     And   was  enamoured  with  the  beauty  of 
her  virtues. 

i,ET  us  PRAY. 

O  Omnipotent,  eternal  God,  who  vouchsafedst 
to  choose  holy  Anne  for  mother  of  her  who  brought 
forth  thy  only  begotten  son,  mercifully  grant  that 
we  who  devoutly  commemorate  her  name  may, 
by  her  prayers  and  merits,  obtain  life  everlasting; 
thou  who  livest  and  reignest  one  God,  world  with- 
out end.     R.     Amen. 


21 


PRAYER  TO  RECOMMEND   SOME  TEMPORAI, 
AFFAIR  TO  THE  CARE  OF  ST.  ANNE. 

Glorious  St.  Anne,  full  of  goodness  for  those 
who  invoke  thee,  full  of  compassion  for  those  who 
suffer,  overwhelmed  with  anxiety  and  trouble,  I 
throw  myself  at  thy  feet,  humbly  begging  of  thee 
to  take  under  thy  direction  the  affair  that  is  now 
occasioning  me  so  much  anxiety.  To  thee  I 
recommend  it,  to  thee,  I  pray  to  lay  it  at  the  feet 
of  thy  daughter,  and  our  mother,  the  Most  Holy 
Virgin,  that  vSlie  may  obtain  for  me,  from  the 
Divine  Majesty  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  succCvSs 
which  I  desire. 

Do  thou  intercede  I  pray  thee,  until  my  requCvSt 
be  granted.  Above  all,  Oh  glorious  saint,  ob- 
tain for  me  one  day  to  see  my  God  face  to  face, 
that  I  may  praise,  bless  and  love  Him  with  thee, 
with  Mary  and  with  all  the  elect.     Amen. 


PRAYER  OF  A   MOTHER   TO  ST.  ANNE. 

O  mother  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  I  place  myself  at 
thy  feet  with  all  those  who  are  dear  to  me.  Pray 
obtain  for  me  from  the  goodness  of  God  all  graces 
necessary  to  accomplish  the  oflfice  he  has  en- 
trusted me  with.  To  thee  I  consecrate  my  fam- 
ily; watch  over  all  my  children,  open  their  souls 
to  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ,  preserve  them 
from  everything  which  might  tarnish  their  inno- 
cence, so  that  later  in  life  they  may  always  firmly 
stand  by  the  truth  !     Holy,  compassionate  Anne, 


22 


do  thou  bless  us,  listen   to  our  prayers,  so  that- 
being  members  of  thy  family  in  this  land  of  exile, 
we  may  with  it  rejoice  triumphant  in  the  glory  of 
heaven  !     Amen. 


f 


CONSECRATION   TO  ST.    ANNE. 


O,  good  St.  Anne,  mother  of  our  sweet  mother, 
Mary,  I  choose  thee  for  my  patroness,  I  place 
under  thy  protection  all  those  that  are  dear  to 
me.  Be  thou  a  mother  to  me  and  to  them  during 
all  the  days  of  our  life,  but  especially  at  the 
moment  of  death.     Amen. 

AVE  MARIS   STElvLA. 

Gentle  Star  of  ocean. 

Portal  of  the  sky, 
Ever  virgin  Mother 

Of  the  Lord  most  high  ! 

Oh  !  by  Gabriel's  Ave, 

Utter' d  long  ago, 
Eva's  name  reversing, 

'Stablish  peace  below. 

Break  the  captive's  fetters; 

Light  on  blindness  pour  ; 
All  our  ills  expelling, 

Every  bliss  implore. 

Show  thyself  a  Mother; 

Offer  him  our  sighs, 
Who  for  us  incarnate 

Did  not  thee  despise. 


23 

Virgin  of  all  virgins  ! 

To  thy  shelter  take  us; 
Gentlest  of  the  gentle, 

Chaste  and  gentle  make  us. 

Still  as  on  we  journey, 
Help  our  weak  endeavor; 

Till  with  thee  and  Jesus 
We  rejoice  forever. 

Through  the  highest  heaven, 
To  the  Almighty  Three,     ' 

Father,  Son,  and  Spirit, 
One  same  glory  be. 


Amen, 


COME,  HOI.Y  GHOST. 

Come,  Holy  Ghost,  send  down  those  beams, 
Come,  Holy  Ghost,  send  down  those  beams. 
Which  sweetly  flow  in  silent  streams 
From  thy  bright  throne  above. 

O  come  thou,  Father  of  the  poor, 
Thou,  bounteous  source  of  all  our  store; 
Come,  warm  our  hearts  with  love  divine, 
Come,  warm  our  hearts  with  love  divine, 
Thou,  bounteous  source  of  all  our  store. 
Come,  warm  our  hearts  with  love. 
Come,  Holy  Ghost,  etc. 

Come,  thou  of  comforters  the  best, 
Come,  thou  the  soul's  delightful  guest, 


ii 

W'' 

• 

1 

i 

- -^^ 

^^m 

24 


\v:i 


Come,  thou  the  soul's  delightful  guest, 
The  pilgrim's  sweet  relief. 
Come,  Holy  Ghost,  etc. 

Thou  art  our  rest  in  toil  and  sweat. 
Refreshment  in  excessive  heat. 
Refreshment  in  excessive  heat, 

And  solace  in  our  grief. 

Come,  Holy  Ghost,  etc. 

O  sacred  Light !  shoot  forth  thy  darts; 
O  pierce  the  centre  of  these  hearts  ! 
O  pierce  the  centre  of  these  hearts  ! 

Whose  faith  aspires  to  thee. 

Come,  Holy  Ghost,  etc. 


N 


ANGELS  WE  HAVE  HEARD. 

Angels  we  have  heard  on  high— 
Sweetly  singing  o'er  the  plains, 

And  the  mountains  in  reply 
Echo  back  their  joyous  strains, 

||:Gloria  in  excelsis  Deo.:|| 

Shepherds  why  this  jubilee  ? 

Why  your  rapturous  strains  prolong  ? 
Say  what  may  the  tidings  be, 

Which  inspire  your  heav'nly  song, 
||:Gloria  in  excelsis  Deo.: 


25 


Come  to  Bethlehem,  come  and  see, 
Him  whose  birth  the  angeis  &ing  ; 

Come,  adore  on  bended  knee, 
Th'  Infant  Christ,  the  new-born  King. 
||:Gloria  in  excelsis  Deo.:|| 

See,  within  a  manger  laid, 
Jesus,  Lord  of  lieav'n  and  earth  ! 

Mary,  Joseph,  lend  your  aid, 

With  us  sing  our  Saviour's  birth  : 
||:Gloria  in  excelsis  Deo.:|| 


THE  SMIIvE  OF  JESUS. 

Sweet  is  the  face  of  nature. 

When  flowers  deck  the  vales  ; 
When  air  is  filled  with  fragrance. 

Wafted  by  vernal  gales  ; 
Yet  zephyrs  vainly  fan  me. 

And  flow'rs  to  groves  invite  ; 
Without  the  smile  of  Jesus, 

They  give  me  no  delight. 

Tho'  crystal  streams  meander. 

And  fertilize  the  plain  ; 
Tho'  gentle  zephyrs  wander. 

And  waft  each  pleasing  strain  ; 
Tho'  valleys,  groves,  and  fountains 

Unite  to  charm  my  sight, 
Without  the  smile  of  Jesus 

They  cannot  give  delight. 


li/l 


26 


ii! 


Sweet  are  the  shady  bowers, 

The  silent,  still  retreat ; 
The  sunshine  after  showers, 

And  morning  air  are  sweet  ; 
But  vain  are  nature's  beauties. 

And  lost  her  sweets  to  me  ; 
Dear  Jesus  !  naught  can  charm  me. 

Without  a  smile  from  thee. 

Jesus  !  thy  smile  of  mercy 

Can  make  my  spirit  whole. 
And  drive  the  shades  of  darkness 

From  my  afflicted  soul. 
Oh  !  pardon  my  transgressions. 

And  purify  my  heart ; 
Speak,  all  my  sins  forgiven. 

And  bid  my  fears  depart. 


W- 


AVE  SANCTISSIMA. 

Ave  Sanctissima  ! 

We  lift  our  souls  to  thee, 
Ora  pro  nobis  ! 

*Tis  nightfall  on  the  vSea. 
Watch  us  while  shadows  lie 

Far  o'er  the  waters  spread  : 

Hear  the  heart's  lonely  sigh, 

Thine  too  hath  bled. 
Thou  that  hast  looked  on  death, 

Aid  us  when  death  is  nigh  ; 


27 


Whisper  of  heav'n  to  faith. 

Sweet  Mother,  sweet  Mother,  hear  ! 

Ora  pro  nobis  ! 
The  wave  must  rock  our  sleep, 

Ora,  Mater,  ora,  Star  of  the  sea. 

Ave  Sanctissima  ! 

List  to  thy  children's  prayer. 
Audi  Maria  ! 

And  take  us  to  thy  care. 
O  thou  whose  virtues  shine 

With  brightest  purity, 
Come,  and  each  thought  refine. 

Till  pure  like  thine  ! 
O  save  our  souls  from  ill  ;  * 

Guard  thou  our  lives  from  fear  ; 
Our  heart  with  pleasure  fill. 

Sweet  mother,  sweet  mother,  dear  ! 

Ora  pro  nobis  ! 
The  wave  must  rock  our  sleep, 

Ora,  Mater,  ora,  Star  of  the  sea. 


5 


HAIL,  VIRGIN,  DEAREST  MARY. 

Hail,  Virgin,  dearest  Mary, 

Our  lovely  Queen  of  May, 
O  spotless  blessed  Lady, 

Our  lovely  Queen  of  May, 

Thy  children,  humbly  bending 
Around  thy  shrine  so  dear  ; 


as 


i-ii 


§ 

0:. 

m 


;i 


n 


With  heart  and  voice  ascending, 
Sweet  Mary,  hear  our  prayer. 
Hail,  Virgin,  etc. 

Behold  earth's  blossoms  springing, 
In  beauteous  form  and  hue  ; 

All  nature  gladly  bringing 
Her  sweetest  charms  to  you. 
Hail,  Virgin,  etc. 

We'll  gather  fresh,  bright  flowers. 
To  bind  our  fair  Queen's  brow  ; 

From  gay  and  verdant  bowers. 
We  haste  to  crown  thee  now. 
Hail,  Virgin,  etc. 

And  now,  our  blessed  Mother, 
Smile  on  our  festal  day  ; 

Accept  our  wreath  of  flowers, 
And  be  our  Queen  of  May. 
Hail,  Virgin,  etc. 


HAIL,  HEAVENLY  QUEEN 

Hail,  heavenly  Queen  !  Hail,  foamy  ocean  star  ! 
O  be  our  guide,  diffuse  thy  beams  afar  ; 
Hail,  Mother  of  God  !  above  all  virgins  blest. 
Hail,  happy  gate  of  heav'n's  eternal  rest. 

CHORUS. 

Hail,  foamy  ocean  star  !  Hail,  heav'nly  Queen  ! 

O  be  our  guide  to  endless  joys  unseen. 

"Hail,  full  of  grace,"  with  Gabriel  we  repeat  ; 


29 


Thee,  Queen  of  heav'n   from   him  we  leani  to 

greet ;  . 
Then  give  us  peace,  which  heav'n  alone  can 

give. 
And,  dead  thro'  Eve,  thro'  Mary  let  us  live. 

Hail,  foamy,  etc. 

O  break  our  chains,  our  captive  souls  releavSe  ; 
O  give  us  light,  and  let  our  darkness  cease  ; 
Let  ev'ry  ill  that  preys  upon  our  hearts 
Fly  at  thy  voice,  which  every  good  imparts. 
Hail,  foamy,  etc. 

Our  lives  unstain'd,  in  purity  preserve  ; 
Nor  e'er  permit  our  ways  from  truth  to  swerve, 
That  when  our  time  has  rolled  its  rapid  round 
We    may,    with  Christ,    in    heav'nly   bliss   be 

crown' d. 

Hail,  foamy,  etc. 


,  ;;■ 


n 


AS  THE  DEWY  SHADES  OF  EVEN. 

As  the  dewy  shades  of  even 
Gather  o'er  the  balmy  air, 

lyisten,  gentle  Queen  of  heaven, 
lyisten  to  my  vesper  prayer  ! 


Chorus- 


-Holy  Mother,  near  me  hover, 
Free  my  thoughts  from  aught  defiled  ; 

With  thy  wings  of  mercy  cover, 
Safe  from  harm,  thy  helpless  child  ! 


if 


30 


Chorus- 


Chorus- 


Thine  own  sinless  heart  was  broken , 
Sorrow's  sword  had  pierced  its  core  ; 

Holy  Mother,  by  that  token, 
Now  thy  pity  I  implore. 

—Queen  of  Heaven,  guard  and  guide  me, 
Save  my  soul  from  dark  despair  ; 
In  thy  tender  bosom  hide  me  ; 
Take  me,  Mother,  to  thy  care. 

Mother  of  my  Infant  Saviour, 
Spouse  of  God,  my  plaint,  O  hear  ! 

Purest  Virgin,  gracious  Matron, 
O  relieve  me  by  thy  prayer  ! 

—From  thy  happy  seat  in  Zion, 
lyight  me  thro'  this  dark  abode, 
Smile,  O  gently  smile  upon  me  ! 
Tell  my  sorrows  to  my  God. 


THE  IMMACUI.ATE  CONCEPTION. 

This  beautiful  Hymn  of  Father  Faber  was  written  before  the  sol- 
emn definition  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,  De- 
cember 8,  1854. 

O  purest  of  creatures  !  swtjet  Mother  !  sweet  maid  ! 
The  one  spotless  woml)  *  /herein  Jesus  was  laid  ! 
Dark  night  hath  come  down  on  us,  Mother,  and  we 
lyook  out  for  thy  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 
Deep  night  hath  come  down  on  this  rough-spoken 

world. 
And  the  banners  of  darkness  are  boldly  unfurl' d. 


31 


And  the  tempest-tost  Church — all  her  eyes  are  on 

thee, 
They  look  to  thy  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 

The  Chinch  doth  what  God  had  first  taught  her 

to  do. 
He  look'd  o'er  the  world  to  find  hearts  that  were 

true  ; 
Through  the  ages  He  look'd,  and  he  found  none 

but  thee, 
And  He  loved  thy  clear  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the 

Sea! 

He  gazed  on  thy  vSoul  ;  it  was  spotless  and  fair, 
For  the  empire  of  sin  it  had  never  been  there  ; 
None  had  e'er  own'd  thee, dear  Mother,  but  He- 


And  He  bless' d  thy  clear  shining,  Sweet  Star  of  the 
Sea!  ' 

Earth  gave  Him  one  lodging,  'twas  deep  in  thy 

breast — 
And  God  found  a  home  where  the  sinner  finds 

rest ; 
His  home  and  His  hiding- place, both  were  in  thee. 
He  was  won  by  thy  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 

Oh,  blissful  and  calm  was  the  wonderful  rest 
That  thou  gavest  thy  God  in  thy  virginal  breast ; 
For  the  heaven  He  left  He  found  heaven  in  thee. 
And  He  shone  in  thy  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the 
Sea! 


:| 


!»' 


32 


To  sinners  what  comfort,  to  angels  what  mirth 
That  God  found  one  creature  unfallenon  earth, 
One  spot  where  His  spirit  untroubled  could  be- 


The  depths  of  thy  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 

So  age  after  age  in  the  Church  hath  gone  round, 
And  the  Saints  new  invention  of  homage  have 

found, 
New  titles  of  honor,  new  honors  for  thee, 
New  love  for  thy  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 
And  now  from  the  Church  of  all  lands  thy  dear 

name 
Comes  borne  on  the  breath  of  one  mighty  acclaim  ; 
Men  call  on  their  Father,  that  He  should  decree 
A  new  gem  to  thy  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 

Oh,  shine  on  us  brighter  than  ever,  then,  shine  ! 
For  the  primest  of  honors,  dear  Mother  is  thine  ; 
"  CoNCEivKD  WITHOUT  SIN,"  thy  uew  title  shall 

be. 
Clear  light  from  thy  birth-spring,  sweet  Star  of 

the  Sea  ! 

So  worship  we  God  in  these  rude  latter  days. 
So  worship  we  Jesus,  our  T^ove,  when  we  praise 
His  wonderful  grace  in  the  gifts  He  gave  thee. 
The  gift  of  clear  shining.  Sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 

Deep  night  has  come  down  on  us,  Mother,  deep 

night. 
And  we  need  more  than  ever  the  guide  of  thy  light ; 
For  the  darker  the  night  is,  the  brighter  should  be 
Thy  beautiful  shining,  sweet  Star  of  the  Sea  ! 


33 


HOLY  PATRON  !    THEE  SAI.UTING. 


of 


Holy  Patron  !  thee  saluting, 

Here  we  meet  with  hearts  sincere; 

Blest  St.  Joseph,  all  uniting. 
Call  on  thee  to  hear  our  pray'r. 

Happy  Saint  in  bliss  adoring 
Jesus,  Saviour  of  mankind; 

Hear  thy  children  thee  imploring, 
May  we  thy  protection  find. 

Worldly  dangers  for  them  fearing, 
Youthful  hearts  to  thee  we  bring. 

Grant,  in  virtue  persevering, 

Vice  may  ne'er  their  bosom  sting. 

Happy  Saint,  etc. 

Thou  who  faithfully  attended 

Him  whom  heav'n  and  earth  adore: 

Who  with  pious  care  defended 
Mary,  Virgin  ever  pure. 

Happy  Saint,  etc. 

May  our  fervent  pray'rs,  ascending, 
Move  thee  for  our  souls  to  plead , 

And  thy  smile  of  peace,  descending, 
Benedictions  on  us  shed. 

Happy  Saint,  etc. 
2 


ill 


n 


34 


i' 


1 1!;' 


l^ili'i' 


JERUSAI.EM. 

Jerusalem,  my  happy  home, 

How  do  I  sigh  for  thee  ! 
When  shall  my  exile  have  an  end, 
Thy  joys  when  shall  I  see  ! 
Jerusalem,  Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,  my  happy  home, 
How  do  I  sigh  for  thee  ! 

No  sun,  no  moon,  in  borrow 'd  light, 

Revolve  thine  hours  away; 
The  Lamb  on  Calvary's  mountain  slain 

Is  thy  eternal  day. 
Jerusalem,  etc. 

From  every  eye  He  wipes  the  tear, 
All  sighs  and  sorrows  cease; 

No  more  alternate  hope  or  fear. 
But  everlasting  peace. 
Jerusalem,  etc. 

The  thought  of  Thee  to  us  is  given, 

Our  sorrows  to  beguile; 
T'  anticipate  the  bliss  of  heaven, 

In  His  eternal  smile. 
Jerusalem,  etc. 


HOLY  GOD,  WE  PRAISE  THY  NAME. 

*  Holy  God,  we  praise  thy  name  ! 
Lord  of  all,  we  bow  before  Thee  ! 
All  on  earth  thy  sceptre  claim, 


86 


All  in  heav'n  above  adore  Thee; 
Infinite  thy  vast  domain, 
Everlasting  is  Thy  name. 

Hark  !  the  loud  celestial  hymn, 
Angel  choirs  above  are  vSinging  ! 

Cherubim  and  Seraphim, 

In  unceasing  chorus  praising, 

Fill  the  heavens  with  sweet  accord: 

Holy  !  Holy  !  Holy  Lord. 

lyO  !  the  apostolic  train 

Join,  thy  sacred  name  to  hallow  ! 
Prophets  swell  the  loud  refrain,  ^ 

And  with  white-robed  martyrs  follow; 
And  from  morn  till  set  of  sun. 
Through  the  Church  the  song  goes  on. 

Holy  Father,  Holy  Son, 

Holy  Spirit,  Three  we  name  thee, 
While  in  essence  only  One, 

Undivided  God  we  claim  thee; 
And  adoring  bend  the  knee. 
While  we  own  the  mystery. 

Thou  art  King  of  glory,  Christ  ! 

Son  of  God,  yet  born  of  Mary, 
For  us  sinners  sacrificed, 

And  to  death  a  tributary: 
First  to  break  the  bars  of  death, 
Thou  hast  open'd  heav'n  to  faith. 


36 


HYMN  TO  SAINT  ANNE. 


'li! 


I 


1 
if 

II 
;l  ill 


nn 


i!; 

$ 

ft '" 

h 
1^ 


Written  for  St.  Anne's,  Ashton-under  I^yne,  and  printed  Jan- 
uary, i88o. 

Hail,  Anne  !  thronged  in  light  above, 
To  God  and  all  His  creatures  dear  ! 

Whene'r  we  name  thy  gracious  name, 
Jesus  and  Mary  seem  more  near. 

Raise,  raise  for  us  thy  pleading  voice, 
And  bid  our  sorrowing  souls  rejoice; 
At  Jesus'  feet  our  suppliant  be  ! 
Mother  of  Mary  !  pray  for  me. 

How  great  thy  joy,  at  Mary's  birth. 

No  more  to  mourn  disconsolate  ! 
While  angels  hailed  thee  in  their  hymns, 

Mother  of  the  Immaculate  ! 

Raise,  Anne,  raise  thy  pleading  voice,  etc. 

'Twas  thine  her  earliest  speech  to  form, 
And  hear,  while  bending  at  thy  knee, 

God's  mother  lisp  the  name  of  God, 
And  call  on  Him  who  was  to  be. 

Raise,  Anne,  raise  thy  pleading  voice,  etc. 

In  rapture  up  the  Temple  steps. 

While  love  and  awe  thy  spirit  stirred. 

Thou  saw'st  thy  wondrous  Child  ascend, 
Herself  the  Temple  of  the  Word. 

Raise,  Anne,  raise  thy  pleading  voice,  etc. 


m 


Dear  Saint !  thy  life  is  lonely  now, 
The  light  that  lit  thy  home  is  gone; 

But,  still,  in  sorrow  and  in  joy, 
The  Mother  and  the  Child  are  one. 

•  Raise,  Anne,  raise  thy  pleading  voice,  etc. 

In  mystic  sympathy  divine 

Thy  loved  one's  heart  and  thine  are  bound; 
Like  harps  attuned  to  heavenly  strains, 

Whose  tones  in  unison  resound. 

Raise,  Anne,  raise  thy  pleading  voice,  etc. 

Oh  !  by  that  first  Magnificat ! 

By  Bethlehem's  midnight  burst  of  lyight  ! 
By  Egypt,  and  the  wilderness. 

And  the  long  anguish  of  the  Flight ! 

Raise,  Anne,  raise  thy  pleading  voice,  etc. 

By  those  thy  love  held  dear  below, 

Who  now  are  with  thee  where  thou  art  ! 

By  Joseph,  and  by  Joachim, 
By    Mary  and  the  Sacred  Heart ! 

Raise,  Anne,  raise  th}^  pleading  voice,  etc. 


Spotless  Anne  !  Juda's  glory  ! 

Through  the  Church  from  East  to  West, 
Every  tongue  proclaims  thy  praises, 

Holy  Mary's  mother  blest  ! 


38 


I 


Chorus. 

Gathered  round  thy  sacred  banner, 
In  the  Church  that  bears  thy  name, 

Mary's  Mother  !  gracious  Anne  ! 
We  thy  grace  and  favor  claim. 

Saintly  kings  and  priestly  sires 

Blended  in  thy  sacred  line; 
Thou  in  virtue,  all  before  thee 

Did'st  excel  by  grace  divine. 

Chorus. — Gathered  round,  etc. 


I  hnve  refrained  from  relating  in  St.  Anne's 
life  man>  things  that  are  interesting,  but  which 
seem  not  to  be  sufficiently  authenticated.  What 
I  wrote  about  the  life  of  St.  Anne,  T  wrote  with 
more  pleasure  than  labor,  as  I  visited  Sephoris  in 
Galilee,  St.  Anne's  shrine  at  Jerusalem,  St.  Anne 
d' Auray  in  Britanny  and  St.  Anne  of  Beaupre  in 
Canada.  Although  the  reading  of  this  little  book 
will,  I  think,  be  very  interesting,  my  chief  motive 
in  writing  it  has  been  the  hope  that  the  work 
might  help  to  vspread  devotion  to  St.  Anne  in  the 
Diocese  of  Burlington. 

Devotion  to  this  great  saint  is  indeed  a  precious 
legacy  which  I  ardently  desire  to  leave  to  my 
spiritual  children. 

The  Bishop  of  Burungton,  Vt. 


39 


LIFE  OF  ST.  ANNE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WHY  DO  CATHOLICS  HAVK  SO  MUCH  DEVOTION 

TOWARD  ST.  ANNK. 

St.  Anne  is  the  mother  of  the  Blessed  Virgin. 
Mary,  therefore,  is  ever  ready  to  hear  the  requests 
of  St.  Anne,  and  to  turn  towards  sinners  her  eyes 
full  of  mercy.  St.  Anne  was  not  a  queen  or  great 
lady  of  the  world.  She  spent  her  life  in  obscur- 
ity, employed  in  useful  labor  and  she  was  tried 
by  suffering  and  sorrow.  She  has  a  heart  full  of 
compassion  ;  she  is  accessible  to  all.  She  was  a 
mother,  extremely  fond  of  Mary,  her  admirable 
daughter,  yet  she  parted  with  that  dear  child, 
when  she  knew  that  God  demanded  that  separa- 
tion. Do  not  you  Christian  mothers  feel  that 
Blessed  Anne  will  pray  for  you  and  help  you  to 
raise  your  children  in  the  fear  of  God  ?  Did  you 
ever  cast  your  eyes  upon  an  image  or  statute  of 
St.  Anne  without  feeling  that  she  is  no  strafiger 
to  you  ?  Mary  Immaculate  was  conceived  in  the 
womb  of  St.  Anne — Oh  how  holy  must  have  been 
that  living  temple  which  was  the  dwelling  place 
of  her  who  was  herself  destined  to  conceive  and 
bring  forth  Him  whom  heaven  a7id  earth  can  not 
contain  !     St.  Anne  is  so  closely  united  to  the  Son 


I 


40 


of  God  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.     Listen  to  these 
words  of  St.  John  of  Damascus : 

"Oh  blessed  couple  Joachim  and  Anne!  To 
you  every  creature  is  bou^d  by  the  deepest  grati- 
tude, for  it  was  through  you  that  we  could  offer 
to  God  the  most  noble  of  all  gifts,  namely  that 
immaculate  mother,  who  alone  was  worthy  of 
him!" 


CHAPTER  II. 


UFK  OF  ST.  ANNE. 


Our  saint,  who  was  issued  of  the  royal  house  of 
David,  was  probably  born  at  Sephoris,  six  miles 
north  of  Nazareth.  At  the  age  of  twenty,  she 
was  given  in  marriage  to  a  holy  man  named 
Joachim,  also  of  the  house  of  David,  and  both 
spent  the  greater  part  of  their  life  in  the  same 
place  (Sephoris  in  Galilee) ,  being  in  easy  circum- 
stances, and  possessed  of  large  flocks.  They  di- 
vided in  three  parts  the  revenues  of  their  prop- 
erty. One  was  for  the  poor,  the  widows  and  the 
orphans,  the  other  for  the  temple  of  Jerusalem, 
the  third  for  their  own  use.  We  have  seen  at 
Sephoris  the  place  where  during  our  pilgrimage  to 
the  holy  land,  this  holy  couple  lived,  and  around 
which  the  crusaders  had  built  a  large  Basilica. 
Joachim  and  Anne  had  also  at  Jerusalem  a  house 
situated  north  of  the  temple,  adjoining  the  pond 
named  Probatica  (j.  v.),  it  being  in  that  part  of 


41 


Jerusalem  where  vSheep  were  bought  to  be  offered 
up  in  sacrifice  in  the  temple.  It  therefore  hap- 
pened that  they  lived  sometime  in  one,  some- 
time in  the  other  place,  and  vSometimes  Anne  re- 
mained alone  at  Jerusalem  whilst  Joachim  and  his 
men  attended  their  flocks  in  the  mountains  about 
Sephoris.  Though  they  were  beloved  of  God 
and  esteemed  by  men,  Joachim  and  Anne  were 
very  unhappy,  for  Almighty  God  had  not  been 
pleased  to  give  them  children,  though  they  had 
now  lived  together  twenty  years.  It  happened 
that  Joachim  and  Anne  went  on  a  certain  feast 
day  to  present  their  offering  to  the  temple,  but 
the  priest  would  not  receive  it,  declaring  they 
were  unworthy  to  appear  before  God,  since  he 
had  cursed  them  by  refusing  to  them  the  honor  of 
bringing  forth  children.  In  those  days,  indeed, 
when  the  promised  Messiah  or  Saviour  was  ex- 
pected to  be  born  in  the  world,  barrenness  was 
looked  upon  as  a  malediction  amongst  the  Jews. 
Being  thus  publicly  put  to  shame,  Joachim  went 
back  to  the  mountains,  remaining  five  whole 
months  separate  from  Anne.  The  prayers  and 
penances  of  this  holy  couple  did  at  last  move  the 
heart  of  God,  and  they  were  promised  a  child 
who  was  to  be  the  admiration  of  men  to  the  end 
of  the  world.  From  this  time  Joachim  and  Anne 
lived  chiefly  in  Jerusalem.  In  their  house  at  Je- 
rusalem Mary  was  conceived  and  born,  and  here 
she  was  nursed  by  her  holy  mother  until  the  day 
of  her  presentation  in  the  temple.  Anne,  alone 
amongst  all  the  daughters  of  men,  was  privileged 


a 


42 


I 


in 

■  li 


I'm' 
\m 


to  conceive  a  human  being  to  whom  the  original 
stain  was  not  transmitted.  During  the  space  of 
nine  months  the  spotless  blessed  infant  lived  in 
the  womb  of  Holy  Anne.  How  great  then  must 
be  the  holiness  of  the  mother  of  Mary  !  If  the 
mere  salutation  of  Mary  to  Elizabeth,  caused  the 
mother  of  John  to  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  if  now  the  recitation  of  one  Hail  Mary  is  the 
source  of  many  blessings,  what  vShall  we  say  of 
the  blessedness  of  her  who,  during  nine  months, 
was  so  intimately  united  to  the  mother  of  God  ? 

Who. can  tell  of  the  joy  of  Joachim  and  Anne, 
when  that  blessed  child  was  born  in  the  world  ? 
Who  will  imagine  the  depth  of  Anne's  gratitude 
to  God,  when  after  her  long  and  humiliating  bar- 
renness, she  nursed  at  her  bosom  the  mother  of 
Him  who  nourishes  all  beings  ?  Joachim  and 
Anne  saw  Mary  kneel  down  when  for  the  first 
time  she  gave  expression  to  her  love  of  God, 
when  she  uttered  her  first  prayer  in  behalf  of  sin- 
ful men  !  O  blessed  Anne  !  Blessed  is  thy  womb 
which  bore  the  mother  of  God,  blessed  are  thy 
paps  which  gave  her  suck  !  Day  after  day  as 
time  went  on  after  the  birth  of  Mary  she  grew  up 
in  wisdom  and  grace.  Day  after  day  she  also  be- 
came the  more  dear  to  her  aged  and  holy  mother 
our  St.  Anne. 

As  we  are  here  writing  chiefly  for  our  Catholics 
of  the  Diocese  of  Burlington,  we  will  invite  them 
sometime  when  they  will  come  to  visit  our  Cathe- 
dral, to  examine  the  first  window  of  the  chancel 
on  the  Gospel  side.     That  beautiful  stained  glass 


43 


window  represents  Joachim  and  Anne  presenting 
the  child  Mary  in  the  temple.  They  had  indeed 
made  that  promise  to  God,  and  it  was  probably  to 
reward  them  for  that  promise,  that  God  had  given 
them  this  child  of  Benediction.  Mary  herself, 
yonng  as  she  was,  but  wonderfully  enlightened 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  ardently  dcvsired  to  conse- 
crate herself  irrevocably  to  His  service.  Yet  how 
painful  it  was  for  Mar}^  to  part  with  her  admirable 
and  much  beloved  parents,  how  painful,  especially 
for  Anne,  to  see  her  dear  Mary  retire  from  her 
modest  house  near  the  pond  Probatica  !  As  we 
are  writing  these  lines  we  are  in  spirit  in  Jeru- 
salem, which  we  visited  two  years  ago,  and  see  as 
it  were  before  our  eyes,  this  part  of  the  Holy  City 
which  we  then  examined  with  much  attention. 

The  house  of  St.  Anne  was  very  near  the  north 
part  of  that  very  large  place  surrounded  with 
walls,  named  the  Temple,  in  the  midst  of  which 
had  been  erected  the  Sanctuary,  containing  the 
Holy  and  the  Holy  of  Holies.  Adjoining  this 
holier  part  of  the  temple  there  were  buildings 
where,  under  the  tuition  of  venerable  matrons, 
young  virgins  wei^  taught  the  law  of  God,  and 
employed  in  such  work  as  was  suitable  to  their 
condition,  spending  also  much  time  in  prayer. 

The  temple  of  Jerusalem  w.t  x  glorious  place 
wherein  to  learn  the  law  of  God  and  the  wonders 
of  his  power  and  mercy  towards  his  people.  There 
were  the  Priests,  the  Doctors  of  the  law  divinely 
appointed  to  teach  the  people  of  God.  Here  it 
W^^  that  Christ  hinvself  was  to  come  at  the  age  of 


li: 


'1 


u 


12    to  listen   to   them   and   ask  them  questions. 
Jerusalem  was  not  far  from  Hebron,  the  dwelling 
of  Abraham,  from  Bethlehem,  the  home  of  David, 
and  only  a  few  miles  from  the  Jordan,  crossed  in  a 
miraculous  manner  by  the  Israelites,   and  from 
Galgala,  where  the  Manna  had  ceased  to  fall  from 
Heaven.     At  Jerusalem  Melchisedech  had  c     /ed 
a  sacrifice  in  bread  and  wine,  at  Jerusalem  Abra- 
ham had  built  an  altar  to  offer  his  son  in  sacrifice, 
at  Jerusalem,  in  the  glorious  temple,  close  to  the 
dwelling  of  Mary,  there  was  offered  to  God  the 
sacrifice  of  a  lamb  every  morning  and  night,  and 
on  the  recurrence  of  the   Sabbath   and  of  their 
great  anniversaries  victims  in  great  number  and 
of  different   kinds  were   immolated,    whilst   the 
children  of  Israel  came  from  every  part  of  the 
land  to  adore  their  God,  to  offer  Him  their       ^s- 
ents,  and  unite  their  voices  to  those  of  theL^v->es 
in  singing  praise  to  the  Lord  in  the  language  of 
their   inspired   prophets.      Mary,    therefore,    the 
daughter  of  Anne,  Mary,  the  virgin   consecrated 
to   God,    grew   up   incessantly  in  the  knowledge 
and  the  love  of  the  Almighty.     But  although  she 
had  left  the  house  of  her  parent,  it  is  more  than 
probable  that  they  came  sometimes  to  visit  their 
daughter;  and  now  it  was  the  turn  of  Mary,  if  not 
to  teach  her  venerable  parents,  at  least  to  commu- 
nicate to  them  those  extraordinary  lights  which 
she  received  from  the  Holy  Ghost  dwelling  within 
.her.     Oh,  how  the  heart  of  Anne  burned  within 
her  when  Mary  spoke  to  her  and  explained  many 
passages  of  the  Scriptures  ! 


45 


If  we  remember  well  the  place  occupied  by  the 
house  of  Anne,  the  ground  on  which  it  vStood  was 
slightly  higher  than  that  of  the  temple,  so  that 
perhaps  from  the  terrace  of  her  cottage,  Anne 
could  see  the  place  w^here  Mary  dwelt  in  the  tem- 
ple, and  therefore  there  is  no  doubt  in  our  mind 
but  that  Anne  used  to  offer  her  prayers  to  God  at 
the  same  time  with  Mary,  and  unite  her  intentions 
to  hers.  A  time  came  whilst  Mary  was  in  the 
temple,  and  that  was  very  soon  after  lea'/in^?r  her 
parents,  tvlien  one  thought  took  poSvSession  of  :j;er 
whole  soul.  This  was  the  thought  of  the  future 
Redeemer  after  whose  coming  she  sighed  day  and 
night.  She  had  understood  that  this  Redeemer 
was  to  be  a  divine  nerson.  Emmanuel^  God 
with  men.  She  had  understood  about  His 
humilations.  His  voluntary  sufferings.  His  death, 
the  glory  of  His  sepulchre  and  the  salvation  of 
men  to  be  obtained  by  the  same.  As  day  after 
day  she  saw  the  priests  lay  their  hands  upon  the 
heads  of  the  victims,  as  she  saw  the  blood  of  the 
lambs  poured  around  the  altar,  how  ardently  she 
prayed  that  in  place  of  these  imperfect  sacrifices, 
God  might  please  soon  to  send  the  lamb  of  God 
who  might  take  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 

These  sentiments  Mary  did  not  fail  to  commu- 
nicate to  Anne,  and  Anne,  would  unite  her 
prayers  to  those  of  her  daughter,  and  supplicate 
the  Redeemer  to  appear  and  not  delay. 

However  ardent  were  the  prayers  of  Mary, 
that  God  might  please  to  accelerate  the  sending  of 
the  Messiah,  it  had  never  entered  into  her  mind 


mm. 


46 


i 


II 


that  she  might  be  the  one  chosen  to  be  his  mother, 
for  she  was  the  most  humble  of  all  creatures,  but 
to  us  it  appears  most  probable  that  holy  Anne, 
apart  from  special  inspiration,  must  have  begun 
to  suspect  that  her  daughter  was  the  one  privi- 
leged Virgin  who  was  to  conceive  and  bring  forth 
a  son  who  was  to  be  called  Emmanuel.  Mary, 
indeed,  was  of  the  house  of  David,  she  was  a  child 
of  miracles,  a  child  so  holy  !  What  of  the  reality  ? 
The  Lamb  of  God  who  by  his  voluntary  death 
was  to  glorify  God  and  to  save  men,  was  born  of 
Mary,  the  Daughter  of  Anne.  Anne  had  often 
sold  from  her  flocks  near  the  Probatica  some  of 
the  lambs  that  were  sacrificed  in  the  temple,  and 
Mary  brought  forth  at  Bethlehem  the  Lamb  which 
w^is  immolated  on  Calvary.  We  remember  here 
a  remarkable  coincidence.  The  house  of  Anne  in 
Jerusalem  was  only  a  few  feet  from  the  place 
where  our  Lord  was  crowned  with  thorns  and 
condemned  to  die.  In  that  neighborhood  Abra- 
ham had  found  amongst  the  briers  sticking  by  the 
horns  the  ram  which  he  immolated  instead  of  his 
son  Isaac.  Our  Lord  was  loaded  with  his  cross 
immediately  in  front  of  the  house  of  his  grand- 
parent, and  it  is  now  the  place  where  Catholic 
pilgrims  begin  the  Way  of  the  Cross.  It  was  by 
following  that  road  some  2,000  feet  further,  that 
the  Redeemer  arrived  on  the  summit  of  the  rock 
of  Calvary  and  voluntarily  shed  his  blood  fcr  us, 
very  near  the  place  where  Abraham  had  erected 
the  altar  for  the  sacrifice  of  his  son. 

The  most  probable    opinion    concerning    St. 


47 


'■  ' 


Anne,  is,  that  Joachim  and  herself  died  before  the 
birth  of  Christ,  but  Mary  was  present  at  their 
death  and  closed  the  eyes  of  her  parents. 

The  tomb  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  (which  we  saw 
during  our  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land)  ,  is  at 
the  foot  of  the  Mount  of  Olives,  yet  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  house  of  Anne,  which  is  within 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem .  The  bodies  of  Anne,  Joa- 
chim and  Joseph  were  deposited  during  some  time 
in  the  same  family  tomb,  but  a  church  having 
been  built  over  the  house  w^here  Anne  had  lived, 
her  sacred  body  was  placed  there  in  a  vault. 
Nineteen  hundred  years  have  elapsed  since  the 
death  of  St.  Anne,  but  the  spot  where  that  house 
stood,  contiguous  to  the  pond  named  Probatica,\\2iS 
not  forgotten  by  the  Christians.  The  dwelling  of 
Joachim,  Anne  and  Mary,  like  that  of  Nazareth 
where  Joseph  and  Mary  lived,  was  a  structure 
built  abov^e  the  ground,  yet  connected  with  apart- 
ments under  ground,  either  dug  out  of  the  rock, 
or  made  such  by  the  hand  of  nature.  The  ex- 
terior house  long  ago  disappeared,  and  was  re- 
placed by  other  buildings  at  different  periods. 
Churches  and  Convents  stood  around  that  spot 
consecrated  by  the  birth  of  Mary.  They  were 
visited  by  pilgrims  from  far  away,  and  many 
miracles  were  performed  there,  and  there  also 
mementoes  of  miraculous  cures  were  hung  around 
the  walls,  as  they  are  in  our  days  in  shrines  of 
Marv  and  Anne. 


48 


M' 


i  1;: 


I 

lit 

111 

m 


ST.    ANNE  OF  JERUSAI^EM. 

The  present  church  of  St.  Anne  at  Jerusalem, 
built  many  hundred  years  ago,  profaned  by  Mo- 
hammedans, and  finally  given  by  Turkey  to  the 
French  Government,  after  the  Crimean  war,  was, 
if  not  rebuilt,  at  least  almost  entirely  renovated 
by  the  said  Government  of  France,  and  it  is  now 
in  charge  of  a  religious  community  of  priests 
founded  by  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  Archbishop  of 
Algiers.  This  church  of  St.  Anne  x  Jerusalem 
is  yearly  visited  by  thousands  of  pilgrims,  and 
you  are  shown  in  the  crypt  under  it  the  very  spot 
in  which  Anne  brought  forth  the  Sacred  Virgin 
Mother  of  God,  and  also  the  place  where  the  re- 
mains of  Anne  rested  for  some  time.  An  altar 
stands  over  the  place  where  Mary  was  born  and 
we  had  the  honor  and  consolation  to  say  mass  on 
this  altar,  and  there,  to  recominend  our  children 
of  America  to  the  prayers  of  the  good  and  great 
St.  Anne  and  of  her  Immaculate  daughter.  We 
will  now  bid  farewell  to  the  house  of  Anne  in  Je- 
rusalem, by  saying  with  St.  John  Damascene  : 
*'  O  Mary,  daughter  of  Eve  and  Mother  of  God  ! 
Blessed  the  loins  and  the  womb  from  which  thou 
camest  forth  !  Blessed  the  hands  which  carried 
thee,  blessed  the  lips  which  enjoyed  thy  chaste 
kisses  !  On  this  day  the  salvation  of  the  world  is 
commenced  for  to-day  there  is  born  for  us  in  the 
house  near  the  Prcbatica,  the  Mother  of  God, 
from  whom  condescended  to  fee  born  the  Lamb  oif 
God  who  takes  away  the  sins  of  the  world."  (St. 
John  Damascene,  In  Nativitate  B.  M.  V.) 


49 


CHURCH  OF  ST.  ANNK,  NEAR  AURAY,  FRANCE. 

We  do  not  intend  to  trace  the  history  of  the  de- 
votion to  St.  Anne  through  the  whole  world,  but 
it  is  quite  important  for  our  purpose  to  inform  our 
readers  of  the  manner  in  which  it  was  introduced 
amongst  us.  Keranna,  in  the  language  of  Brit- 
anny  (in  the  west  of  France) ,  signifies  the  House 
of  Anne.  The  village  which  bears  that  name  is 
situated  a  few  miles  from  the  city  of  Auray  in  the 
department  of  Morbihan.  At  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century  there  was  in  this  village  a  chapel 
held  in  great  veneration,  as  being  under  the  spec- 
ial protection  of  St.  Anne.  No  one  can  tell  in 
what  precise  year  it  had  been  erected,  though  it 
had  been  there  a  very  long  time  before  the  afore 
mentioned  date.  At  this  time  the  country  was 
invaded  and  plundered  by  robbers.  The  people 
fled  before  them,  and  when  they  returned  they 
found  that  their  dwellings  had  been  destroyed  by 
fire,  and  with  them  the  venerated  chapel  of  St. 
Anne. 

The  village  of  Keranna  was  rebuilt,  but  for 
reasons  unknown,  the  chapel  was  not.  Nay,  as 
time  went  on  it  seemed  to  have  been  greatly  for- 
gotten. They  might,  however,  see  here  and  there 
scattered  over  the  ground  or  used  in  adjacent 
walls,  some  stones  which  had  evidently  been  a 
part  of  a  sacred  edifice.  Devotion  to  St.  Anne 
did  not  however  die  in  the  country,  for  many 
churches  were  erected  not  far  from  Keranna  under 
the  invocation  of  St.  Anne.  There  must  also  have 


m 


V^ 


50 


lliPi 


I; 


'Mi: 


W: 


|$:v';  ill 


im. 


lingered  in  the  memories  of  the  people  some  con- 
fused remembrance  of  the  former  church  of  St. 
Anne.  The  Bocenno,  was  the  name  of  one  field 
in  Keranna  of  which  the  people  said,  that  one 
particular  spot  in  it  could  never  be  ploughed  up. 
They  might  work  it  with  a  spade,  or  otherwise, 
but  no  animal  harnessed  to  a  plough  could  ever 
be  made  to  cross  it,  and  whoever  attempted  was 
sure  to  fail  and  meet  with  mishap.  Hence,  when 
sent  to  plough  in  the  Bocenno,  the  young  people 
were  always  told  by  their  parents,  do  not  plough 
tip  the  place  of  the  chapel. 

About  the  year  1620  the  farm  of  which  this 
field  was  a  part,  had  been  rented  by  a  very  good 
man  named  Nicolazic  (Little  Nicholas).  Nico- 
lazic  had  inherited  from  his  ancestors,  sincere 
devotion  to  St.  Anne,  attended  regularly  to  all 
the  prescriptions  of  the  church,  was  beloved  and  es- 
teemed by  his  neighbors  who  often  took  him  as 
umpire  in  the  difficulties  which  arOvSe  between 
them.  The  father  of  Nicolazic  had  before  him 
lived  on  this  farm,  and  had  (perhaps  unknowingly) 
used  in  the  basement  of  his  barn,  some  of  the 
stones  of  the  former  building  of  St.  Anne.  At 
this  time  (about  1620),  St.  Anne  did,  on  several 
occasions,  in  several  places,  some  times  in  the  day, 
some  times  in  the  night,  appear  to  Nicolazic.  This 
has  been  ascertained  by  many  regular  inquests.  At 
times  Nicolazic  heard  a  great  noise,  saw  himself 
surrounded  with  great  light  in  the  midst  of  which 
St.  Anne  appeared  to  him.  She  appeared  in  the 
form  of  a  venerable  matron  of  dazzling  beauty 


51 


»  I 


dressed  in  garments  white  as  snow.  She  made 
known  to  him  that  there  had  stood  once  in  the 
Bocenno  a  chapel  dedicated  to  her  name  which 
had  been  destroyed  984  years  before,  that  is  in 
the  year  699 — and  that  it  was  her  desire  that  the 
chapel  should  be  constructed  anew.  On  the  sixth 
day  of  March  money  was  found  in  the  morning 
on  the  table  of  his  house  of  which  no  one  could 
tell  where  it  came  from.  Finally  the  saint  declared 
to  Nicolazic  that  he  must  go  to  the  Bocenno 
and  that  he  would  find  there  a  statue  representing 
herself,  in  a  spot  which  would  be  indicated  to 
him.  This  good  servant  of  St.  Anne  did  then  on 
a  certain  night  go  to  the  Bocenno,  taking  with 
him  four  men  as  witnesses.  A  light  appeared 
and  went  before  them  and  stopped  over  a  peculiar 
spot.  Here  they  dug  the  ground  and  really  found 
an  image  of  St.  Anne. 

Some  time  after  this  event  the  barn  of  Nicolazic, 
of  which  we  have  spoken,  which  was  covered 
with  straw,  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Its  contents, 
however,  were  not  injured,  neither  were  several 
vsheaves  of  rye  which  were  heaped  up  close  by,  in 
the  very  direction  of  the  wind.  The  image  of  St. 
Anne  soon  drew  to  Keranna  a  great  crowd  of  pil- 
grims, and  with  the  offerings  which  they  brought, 
a  church  was  erected  in  which  the  statue  found  by 
Nicolazic  was  placed.  St.  Anne  of  Auray  has  been 
ever  since  a  celebrated  pilgrimage,  which  is  year- 
ly visited  by  thousands  of  devout  people.  During 
the  long  period  of  time  which  elapsed  since  the 
finding  of  the  statue  and  the  erection  of  the  church 


52 


VI  I 


till  our  times,  such  has  been  the  number  of  graces 
of  all  kinds  obtained  through  the  intercession  of  St. 
Anne  in  this  village  of  Keranna,  that  the  immortal 
Pontiif  Pius  IX.  permitted  this  statue  to  be  crown- 
ed, at  the  request  of  the  Bishop  of  Vannes  to  which 
Diocese  St.  Anne  of  Auray  belongs.  That  impos- 
ing and  very  rare  ceremony  occurred  on  the  30th 
of  September,  1868,  and  drew  together  an  immense 
number  of  people,  many  of  them  from  distant 
parts,  but  chiefly  from  Britanny.  A  magnificent 
Basilica  has  now  been  raised*  in  place  of  the  more 
modest  building  begun  by  Nicolazic.  It  may  be 
pleasing  to  the  Catholics  of  our  Diocese  to  know 
that  their  Bishop  prayed  more  than  once  for  them 
before  the  venerated  image  at  Keranna,  of  St. 
Anne  the  mother  of  Mary,  the  Mother  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  last  time  we  were  there  was  in  the  begin- 
ning of  February,  1880,  on  our  return  from  the 
Holy  Land.  Permit  us  to  record  a  pleasant  inci- 
dent of  our  visit  to  St.  Anne  of  Auray.  We  found 
in  this  place  a  community  of  devoted  religious, 
who  have  here  their  novitiate,  and  we  spoke  to 
them  of  what  we  knew  and  had  seen  of  devotion 
to  St.  Anne  in  the  Holy  Land  and  in  America, 
^fter  our  little  address  to  the  good  nuns,  their 
novices  and  their  pupils,  we  were  not  a  little  sur- 
prised to  receive  from  the  mother  superior  an 
oflferiiig  of  $10.00  towards  propagating  devotion 
to  St.  Anne  in  our  Diocese.  This  offering  we  have 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  priest  residing  at  Mil- 


t( 
r( 


53 


ton  FalLs,  of  which  the  church  is  under  the  pat- 
ronage of  St.  Anne. 


SAINT  ANNE  OF  BEAUPRE  BELOW  QUEBEC,  NAMED 
ALSO  ST.  ANNE  OF  THE  NORTH,  AND 
LA  BONNE  SAINTE  ANNE. 

We  think  it  unnecessary  to  write  much  about 
this  celebrated  shrine  of  St.  Anne  in  Canada,  situ- 
ated twenty-one  miles  below  Quebec.  It  was 
begun  in  the  year  1649.  Since  then  it  has  been 
visited  by  numerous  pilgrims,  not  only  from  Can- 
ada, but  also  from  the  United  States.  Let  us  hear 
the  beautiful  relation  of  a  well  known  writer  re- 
garding pilgrimages  to  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre. 
(Casgrain.) 

' '  I  saw  unfold  before  me  all  that  passed  in  this 
spot  since  the  time  of  our  ancestors.  How  touch- 
ing it  is  to  see  in  this  church,  situated  so  peace- 
fully in  the  shade  of  that  fair  coast  of  Beaupre, 
those  pictures,  those  sticks,  those  crutches,  and 
all  those  other  objects  left  there  by  pilgrims  from 
all  parts  of  the  country,  and  suspended  from  the 
walls,  the  columns  and  cornices  of  the  house  of 
prayer ! 

*'  How  many  pains  of  the  body,  hov  much  suf- 
fering of  the  mind,  how  much  anguish  of  heart 
has  come  to  find  in  this  spot  a  cure  or  consolation. 
What  remembrance  of  the  evils  of  earth,  and  what 
sweet  thoughts  of  heaven  are  not  evoked  by  the 
aspect  of  this  modest  sanctuary  !   Does  it  not  seem 


l',,v 


\   '■* 


I 


to  you  that  you  see  defile  before  you  the  long  pro- 
cession of  those,  who,  for  two  centuries  past,  have 
crossed  the  threshold  of  this  abode  of  the  good  St. 
Anne  ?  They  have  come  on  foot,  by  carriage,  by 
canoe,  by  land  and  by  water,  through  the  .snow, 
for  ten,  twenty,  a  hundred,  two  hundred  leagues. 
See  that  poor  mother  who  presses  her  sickly  in- 
fant to  her  breast !  See  this  daughter  who  con- 
ducts by  the  hand  her  sightless  mother  !  The 
father  who  sustains  his  infirm  child  !  The  son 
who  carries  in  his  arms  his  palsied  father  !  See 
this  wife  who  comes  to  request  the  return  of  her 
absent  husband  !  The  husband  who  begs  the  re- 
covery of  a  wife  long  since  ill  !  See  the  penitent 
who  advances  with  bare  feet !  Another  who  comes, 
likewise,  to  thank  God  for  a  signal  favor,  obtained 
through  the  intercession  of  the  patroness  of  the 
afflicted.  This  person  asks  peace  for  his  home  ; 
that  other,  the  end  of  the  errors  of  a  being,  in 
spite  of  all,  tenderly  loved.  See  this  traveller  who 
has  escaped  from  an  imminent  danger,  that  sailor 
saved  from  shipwreck,  the  soldier  who  returns 
from  the  combat !  Do  you  not  seem  to  notice 
upon  their  bronzed  features  and  upon  their  dis- 
ordered dress,  the  traces  of  the  storm,  of  the  brine, 
and  of  the  powder  of  the  field.  They  come  from 
all  directions  :  some  supported  or  carried  by  be- 
loved hands :  others  alone,  helping  themselves 
along  with  their  wooden  legs ;  others,  bent 
beneath  the  weight  of  sorrows.  Some  ask, 
beg ;  others  give  thanks ;  some  are  sad  but 
resigned ;    others  are  joyous,  but   with  a  calm 


li 


55 


and  recollected  joy.  They  pass  unceasingly  ;^ 
their  number  is  immense ;  but  this  assemblage* 
of  so  many  sor|:ows  has  no  clamorous  lamen- 
tations ;  and  this  concourse  of  so  many  joys 
has  no  noisy  outbursts.  They  are  there  by  thou- 
sands, but  they  would  be  there  by  millions,  and 
the  peace  of  this  retreat  would  not  be  troubled  ; 
for  the  only  somuls  heard  in  the  silence  of  the 
place,  are  the  singing  of  pious  canticles  and  the 
gentle  munnur  of  prayer.  But  who  are  they,  who 
contravSt  with  the  others  by  their  features  and  cos- 
tumes? Those  are  the  first  children  of  the  soil, 
the  members  of  the  Indian  tribes  converted  to  the 
faith.  See  you  in  the  midst  of  them  those  two 
noble  aged  persons  ?  They  are  the  Chief  of  the 
Micmacs  and  his  wife.  They  have  come  alone  in 
their  canoe  of  bark,  notwithstanding  the  distance. 
They  are  old,  and  yet  they  have  set  out  without 
providing  themselves  with  provisions.  From  Rist- 
igouche  here  they  have  asked  their  food  as  alms 
from  place  to  place.  They  have  fasted  each  day 
during  this  long  journey,  and  prayed  continually. 
Do  you  know  what  they  come  to  ask  from  St. 
Anne?  They  come  to  pray  her  to  allow  them  to 
establish  a  pilgrimage  to  the  good  St.  Anne,  and 
to  kindly  aid  their  tribe  in  the  execution  of  this 
project  by  the  assistance  of  her  intercession. 

"  They  tell  that  the  Micmacs  come,  indeed, 
from  time  to  time  to  the  good  St.  Anne  of  the 
North,  but  that  all  cannot  come;  they  live  so  far 
away,  so  far  away;  they  would  all,  however, wish 
to  invoke  their  good  patroness  in   a  church  bear- 


i 


fW 


56 


ing  her  name.  They  themselves  have  come  this 
time  to  beg,  and  in  the  name  of  the  entire  nation, 
this  favor.  * 

**  St.  Anne  has  heard  the  Micmacs,  as  she  has 
heard  so  many  others.  For  the  rest,  if  she  does 
not  always  obtain  all  that  we  ask,  because  we  do 
not  at  all  times  ask  that  which  is  best  for  us,  she 
at  least  never  fails  to  console. 
Blessed  are  they  who  believe. 

Casgrain." 


<  ( 


CHAPTER  II. 

DEVOTION  TO  ST.    ANNK  IN  THK   DIOCKSK  OF 

BURUNGTON. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  the  Catholics  of  the 
Diocese  of  Burlington  to  know  that  the  first  set- 
tlement of  white  people  in  Vermont  was  started 
under  the  auspices  of  St.  Anne.  (See  Vermont 
Gazetteer,  art.  Isle  La  Motte.)  In  the  year  1665 
a  fort  was  erected  on  the  north-west  side  of  Isle 
La  Motte,  by  Captain  de  la  Motte,  to  which  he 
gave  the  name  of  St.  Anne,  This  fort  was  im- 
portant at  that  time  when  the  terrible  Iroquois  of 
the  South  were  continually  going  down  Lake 
Champlain,  making  incursions  against  the  weak 
colonies  of  Montreal  and  Quebec.  In  1666  there 
was  in  this  fort  a  garrison  of  sixty  soldiers,  forty 
of  whom  were  sick  with  the  scurvy.  Two  of 
them  had  already  died  without  the  sacraments  of 


t 


J  J 


57 


the  church,  when  a  courageous  priest  named 
Dolier  de  Casson,  of  Montreal,  came  to  stay 
amongst  them,  and  succeeded  in  restoring  many 
of  them  to  health  by  sending  in  sleighs  to  Mon- 
treal those  who  could  stand  the  voyage,  and  pro- 
curing to  those  in  the  fort  a  sufficient  quantity  of 
salubrious  food,  of  which  they  had  been  deprived. 
It  is,  therefore,  certain  that  mass  was  at  that 
early  date  said  regtdarly  at  Fort  St.  Anne,  in 
Isle  lya  Motte,  that  the  country  was  placed  under 
her  protection,  and  that  upwards  of  two  hundred 
years  ago  there  were  here  some  devout  Catholics 
who  were  cheered  up  on  their  death-bed  by  the 
remembrance  of  her  who  was  the  mother  of  Mary, 
the  grand-parent  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whom 
all  Catholics  love  to  invoke  as  the  good  St,  Anne, 

It  is  a  long  time  since  Fort  St.  Anne  has  been 
destroyed,  so  that  many  persons  in  our  own  State 
know  nothing  about  its  history;  to  us,  however, 
it  is  a  pleasant  recollection  to  know  that  devotion 
to  St.  Anne  was  inaugurated  so  many  years  ago 
in  our  Diocese.  God  grant  us  grace  to  see  it 
spread  amongst  us ! 

On  June  the  5th,  1859,  the  corner  stone  of  a 
small  church  to  be  erected  to  the  honor  of  God, 
under  the  name  of  St.  Anne,  was  blest,  and  laid 
down  in  the  foundation  at  Milton  Falls,  in  this 
State.  The  church  itself  was  blessed  on  the  12th 
of  September,  1866.  From  this  it  appears  that 
St.  Anne  was  not  forgotten  by  the  Catholics  of 
Vermont,  since  a  building  in  her  honor  was  com- 
menced some  five  years  only  after  the  erection  of 


k 


58 


;  ( 


the  Diocese  of  Burlington.  We  do  not  know  that 
God  has  been  pleased  to  grant  any  extraordinary 
favor  to  those  who  have  invoked  His  goodness  in 
this  church  of  Milton  through  the  intercession  of 
St.  Anne.  We  record,  however,  with  no  little 
satisfaction,  that  the  fea.st  of  St.  Anne  has  always 
been  celebrated  in  Milton  Falls  with  due  solem- 
nity and  sincere  devotion,  many  ofourpriCvStsand 
of  the  people  coming  thither  on  that  day  (July 
26th)  to  implore  her  protection. 

Devotion  towards  St.  Anne  has  been  propa- 
gated in  S wanton  Falls,  where  our  school  build- 
ing is  named  St.  Anne's  School,  and  where  her 
statue  or  image  may  be  seen  in  all  the  class 
rooms. 

The  facts  which  we  have  just  mentioned  dem- 
onstrate that  devotion  to  St.  Anne  has  existed 
in  our  Diocese  since  the  time  that  the  State  began 
to  be  settled.  It  is,  however,  only  two  years  ago 
that  we  became  aware  of  the  extent  and  depth  of 
this  devotion  amongst  our  dear  people.  The 
number  of  those  who  went  in  pilgrimage  to  St. 
Anne  of  Beaupre,  on  June  the  2otli  of  the  year 
1882;  the  extraordinary  fervor  of  the  same  pil- 
grims; their  gratitude  to  God  after  th'jir  .  Virn; 
the  interest  taken  by  the  Catholic  imunitv  in 
the  same  pilgrimage;  the  resoluti«  cxpresst  by 
the  pilgrims  to  go  back  to  Beaupie  or  to  send 
thither  some  friends  with  the  next  pilgrimage, 
and  especially  the  spiritual  advantages  derived 
from  it,  show  forth  that  the  devotion  exists, — 
that  it  is  pleasing  to  God.  % 


50 


On  the  feast  of  St.  Anne  following  the  pilgrim- 
age, that  is,  on  the  26th  day  of  July,  1882,  the 
Bishop  went  to  Milton  Falls  to  celebrate  the 
solemnity.  There  were  fifteen  prie.sts  present 
there,  two  of  whom  were  from  Canada,  one  from 
Massachusetts,  and  the  others  from  our  Dioce.se. 
The  Bishop  presented  to  the  church  a  relic  of  St. 
Anne  in  the  shape  of  a  stone  which  he  had  de- 
tached from  her  house  in  JerUvSalem,  and  brought 
from  that  place  in  1880.  On  the  .same  occasion 
Mi.ss  Anne  Quinn  of  Burlington  gave  a  fine  reli- 
quary in  which  the  relic  is  deposited.  It  was 
quite  evident  from  the  crowd  of  Catholics  who 
attended  that  they  were  full  of  devotion  towards 
vSt.  Anne;  and  on  lavSt  year  again  (1883),  on  the 
same  anniversary,  a  large  pilgrimage  had  come 
from  St.  Albans  to  Milton,  so  that  the  church 
proA^ed  to  be  too  small  for  tlie  occasion.  In  the 
City  of  Burlington  we  see  that  devotion  to  St. 
Anne  has  greatly  increased,  from  the  following 
facts:  In  St.  Joseph's  church  a  very  large  and 
beautiful  statue  has  been  placed,  which  represents 
the  Saint  in  a  sitting  position,  with  the  child 
Mary  reading  from  a  book  held  up  by  her  mother. 
It  is  seldom  we  have  seen  an  image  whose  aspect 
inspires  more  devotion.  At  last  in  the  Cathedral 
a  very  fine  marble  altar  has  been  erected  which 
will  be  known  as  the  Altar  of  St.  Anne.  It  was 
built  on  purpose  to  receive  the  statue  of  the  Saint; 
and  the  statue  itself,  the  statue  of  the  good  St. 
Anne,  is  the  gift  of  one  01  our  lady  members  of 
the  congregation,  who  gave  it  as  a  memorial  to 


in 


i 


60 


her  own  mother.  This  Altar,  D.  V.,  we  intend 
to  consecrate  on  the  25th  of  this  month — ^July, 
1884 — and  on  the  same  occasion  we  intend  to 
bless  the  statue. 


U 


AN    ACT     OF    CONSECRATION    TO    ST. 

ANNE, 

PRONOUNCKD  BY  THE  BISHOP  OF   BURLINGTON  IN 

THE  CHURCH  OP  ST.  ANNE,  MII^TON  FALI.S, 

ON    JUI.Y    THE    26TH,     1882. 

"  O,  glorious  St.  Anne,  mother  of  her  who 
brought  forth  our  Saviour,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
filled  with  veneration  for  thy  sanctity,  and  pen- 
etrated with  the  deepest  confidence  in  thy  power 
and  mercy,  I,  Louis,  Bishop  of  Burlington,  in 
this  holy  church  which  bears  thy  name,  do  place 
under  thy  protection  my  life  and  the  end  of  my 
life.  To  thy  mercy  and  powerful  intercession  I 
recommend  in  an  especial  manner  the  Reverend 
Clergy  and  the  Religious  of  this  Diocese,  so  that 
by  their  teaching  and  good  examples  they  may  be 
in  reality  the  light  of  the  world. 

"  To  thy  protection  I  recommend  the  heads  of 
families,  that  they  may  lead  holy  and  peaceful 
lives,  and  bring  up  their  children  in  the  fear  of 
God. 

**  To  thee  I  recommend  the  children,  the  young 
people,  the  oijphans  and  widows,  and  all  the  poor 


itetid 
i   to 


ST. 


^  IN 


vho 
ist, 

€11- 

in 
ace 
my 
1  I 
;nd 
lat 
be 


of 
ful 
of 


or 


m 


P 


1 

^1 

1 

61 


and  afflicted  of  the  Diocese  of  Burlington,  and  I 
pray  to  thee  to  obtain  for  us  all  a  sincere  devotion 
towards  thee,  for  we  know  that  peace  and  per- 
severance in  the  faith  are  the  blessings  thou 
obtainest  for  thy  children. 

*  *  In  my  own  name,  and  in  the  name  of  all 
those  who  are  here  present,  we  promise  always  to 
venerate  thee,  to  implore  thy  assistance  in  all  our 
necessities,  and  to  neglect  no  means  in  our  power 
to  propagate  devotion  to  thee. 

"  O,  glorious  St.  Anne,  listen  to  our  supplica- 
tion. We  desire  to  be  thy  children:  be  thou  a 
mother  to  us  and  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Diocese  of  Burlington. '  * 


W 


W 
I 


ISI.E  lyA  MOTTE. 

THE   FORT   AND   CHAPKI.    OF    ST.    ANNE   IN    SAID 

ISI.AND. 

Champlain  is  the  first  civilized  man  who  saw 
the  islands  of  the  lake  which  bears  his  name. 
This  happ'^tied  in  1609,  when  he  took  part  in  an 
expedition  ^i  the  Indians  on  the  St.  Lawrence 
against  the  Iroquois.  He  mentions  only  four  of 
those  islands.  They  are  named  to-day,  the  Grand 
Isle,  Valcour  Island,  North  Island  and  Isle  La 
Motte.  He  says  that  they  were  uninhabited. 
The  Indian  tribes  came  here  to  hunt  or  in  their 
warlike  expeditions.  The  Iroquois,  Algonquins, 
Hurons,    Abanaquis  and   Mohegans  had  fought 


f  w. 

1 

1 

'i 

'J    : 

!i 

1 

1' 

i  ' 

■i  ■ 

02 


for  their  possession,  and  at  the  time  of  Cham- 
plain,  the  Iroquois  tribe  which  we  call  Mohawks, 
seemed  to  be  in  possession.  In  order  to  come 
here  they  had  to  come  through  Lake  George, 
which  had  been  named  Le  Lac  du  St.  Sacrement 
by  Father  Jogues  in  1646.  After  croSvSing  the 
lake  in  all  its  length,  they  entered  the  Richelieu 
river,  which  for  a  long  time  was  named  the 
river  of  the  Iroquois.  They  followed  this  water 
course  down  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  where  they  lay 
in  wait  for  their  enemies,  viz.,  the  Hurons,  the 
Algonquins  and  the  French  colonists.  The  In- 
dians called  Lake  Champlain  Patawabouke,  that 
is,  an  alternation  of  water  and  earth.  Later  on 
the  Hollanders  named  it  Lake  Corlar  in  memory 
of  Governor  Corlar  who  was  drowned  in  it  whilst 
on  his  way  to  Quebec.  The  French  named  it 
Lake  Champlain  in  honor  of  its  discoverer. 

When  57  years  later,  Pierre  de  St.  Paul,  Sieur 
de  la  Motte,  built  a  fort  on  the  island,  which  was 
the  first  visited  by  Champlain,  and  dedicated  it 
to  St.  Anne,  the  mother  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  no 
doubt  but  the  great  discoverer  would  have  cheer- 
full)^  approved  the  resolution,  for  he,  Champlain, 
was  a  man  of  faith,  who  was  wont  to  say  that  the 
salvation  of  one  soul  is  a  greater  work  than  the 
conquest  of  a  world. 

FATHER  JOGUKS   IN   ISI.E  LA  MOTTK   AND  IN  THE 
FORESTS  OF   VERMONT. 

Isle  La  Motte  is  seven  miles  long  by  two  broad. 
In  the  north  part  of  the   island   there  is  a  point 


11 
aJ 


03 


which  stretches  out  westward  and  is  covered  with 
maple,  walnut,  chestnut  and  pine  trees,  and  here 
there  is  a  hill  from  which  there  is  an  extensive 
view  to  the  north  and  south.  From  the  Relaliofis 
des  Jesuiles,  16^6,  we  learn  that  it  was  a  place  of 
meeting  for  the  Algonquin,  and  Iroquois  Indians, 
and  that  they  camped  there  often.  The  Iroquois 
returning  from  their  expeditions  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence, came  up  the  Richelieu  river,  and  they  had 
to  cross  a  bay  six  miles  in  extent.  The  lake  at 
the  first  island  (Isle  La  Motte)  leans  from  West 
to  East,  so  that  the  point  lay  directly  on  their 
route.  In  a  small  bay  of  this  point  they  found  a 
safe  harbor  for  their  canoes.  The  sandy  beach 
rose  up  gradually  from  the  water,  it  was  there- 
fore easy  to  dfaw  them  to  land,  to  shelter  them 
from  the  sun,  and  hide  them  from  their  enemies. 
There  was  no  place  in  the  whole  lake  better 
suited  for  a  camping  ground;  and  hence  the 
French  selected  it  for  the  building  of  P^ort  St. 
Anne.  At  the  beginning  of  the  month  of 
August,  1642,  the  Iroquois  captured  Father 
Jogues,  Rene  Goupil,  Wm.  Couture  and  20 
Algonquins.  They  returned  by  the  Richelieu  and 
entered  Lake  Champlain  which  they  had  to 
traverse  in  all  its  length.  In  the  life  of  Father 
Jogues,  we  find  that  this  journey  was  for  them  an 
occasion  of  new  tortures.  His  finger  nails  had 
already  been  torn  out,  and  at  each  halt  tortures 
were  renewed,  and  his  blood  continued  to  flow. 
It  is  probable  that  he  suffered  in  the  halt  of  the 
Indians  iu  the  first  island,  where  they  undoubt- 


64 


I    ! 


edly  passed  the  night.  We  think  that  the  soil  of 
Isle  lya  Motte  was  sanctified  by  the  blood  of  the 
saintly  Jesuit,  and  that  of  his  companion,  Rene 
Goupil,  who,  according  to  Father  Jogues,  had 
the  purity  of  an  angel.  Both  of  them  were  soon 
to  suffer  death  at  the  hands  of  these  savages. 
Rene  Goupil  was  killed  by  the  blow  of  a  toma- 
hawk, and  fell  at  the  feet  of  the  reverend  Father 
on  the  24th  of  September,  1642,  whilst  pronounc- 
ing the  sacred  name  of  Jesus.  He  died  a  martyr 
of  his  zeal  to  teach  the  Uttle  children  to  make  the 
sign  of  the  cross. 

The  hour  of  Father  Jogues  had  not  yet  come. 
For  thirteen  months  he  served  as  the  slave  of  an 
Indian  family,  accompanying  the  savages  in  their 
hunts,  visiting  the  mountains  and  forests  which 
he  had  sighted  in  former  journeys,  sanctifying  * 
them  by  his  prayers  and  sufferings.  How  often, 
he  says,  I  have  sung  the  canticles  of  the  Lord  in 
this  strange  land,  and  made  them  resound  with 
the  praise  of  the  Creator  which  they  had  never 
heard.  Often  I  engraved  the  name  of  Jesus  on 
the  tall  trees  of  these  primitive  forests  in  order  to 
cause  the  infernal  spirits  to  tremble.  Often  I  cut 
the  bark  which  covered  them  in  the  shape  of  a 
cross  of  my  Saviour  in  order  to  put  the  devil  to 
flight,  and  that  through  it,  O  my  Lord  and  King, 
Thou  mightest  reign  in  the  midst  of  Thy  ene- 
mies. After  his  deliverance  and  a  voyage  to 
France,  Father  Jogues  came  back  to  his  dear 
missions  among  the  Iroquois.  Three  times  he 
went  over  the  same  route  on   Lake  Champlain. 


n 
2 


65 


on 

rto 

cut 

fa 

to 

ne- 
to 
lear 
he 
min. 


He  went  up  to  their  country  as  ambassador  to 
make  a  treaty  of  peace,  between  the  i6th  and  the 
28th  of  May,  1646,  and  returned  to  Quebec  be- 
tween the  1 6th  and  26th  of  June  of  the  same  year. 
He  finally,  upon  their  own  invitation,  went  back 
to  their  settlements  intending  to  live  with  them 
and  teach  them  the  Gospel.  This  was  at  the  end 
of  September,  1646.  On  the  i8th  of  October  he 
was  killed  like  Rene  Goupil,  praying  for  his 
murderers.  The  prayers  of  Father  Jogues  were 
heard  by  Almighty  God  soon  after  his  martyr- 
dom. Twenty  years  later.  Fort  St.  Anne  was 
constructed  on  the  camping  ground  of  the  island, 
which  was  henceforward  named  Isle  La  Motte; 
and  here  they  began  to  offer  the  unbloody  sacri- 
fice of  the  Lord  Jesus,  whose  mercy  the  saintly 
apostle  had  so  fervently  implored  in  behalf  of  the 
country. 

CHOICE  OK  THE  SITE  FOR  A  FORT.        EXPEDITION 
OF    MR.  DE   COURCELLES. 

Montreal  at  this  time  was  governed  by  Mr.  de 
Maisonneuve,  and  the  Sulpicians  sent  by  Mr. 
Olier  of  saintly  memory,  were  beginning  to  estab- 
lish themselves  there.  The  garrison  consisted  of 
v^ery  few  soldiers,  and  at  Three  Rivers  they  had 
to  be  continually  on  the  w^atch  for  fear  of  a  sur- 
prise. Quebec  itself  was  more  strongly  fortified, 
but  unable  to  repel  an  attack,  if  all  the  Indians 
had  attempted  a  combined  attack.  It  was  for- 
tunate, however,  that  thev  ignored  the  weakness 

8' 


ill 


I' 


66 


M  '  '• 


H  \ 


I 


11 


of  the  colonists.  They  contented  themselves  with 
harassing  them  by  frequent  skirmishes,  capturing 
and  robbing  the  imprudent  settlers  who  went  too 
far  from  their  forts.  Fortunately  the  mother 
country  sent  them  reinforcements  at  this  time. 
During  the  summer  of  1658  there  arrived  the 
Regiment  of  Carrignan  with  the  vice  Roy  de 
Tracy  and  Governor  de  Courcelles.  In  view  of 
the  situation  M.  de  Tracy  sent  immediately  Mr. 
de  Repentigny  at  the  head  of  a  few  companies, 
with  directions  to  select  the  most  advantageous 
positions  for  the  erection  of  forts.  The  first  of 
these  forts  was  erected  at  the  mouth  of  the  Iro- 
/quois  (Richelieu)  river,  in  the  very  spot  where 
Mr.  de  Montmagny  had  occupied  one  during  four 
years,  between  1642  and  1646.  The  second  fort 
was  named  Fort  Richelieu  as  the  first  one  had 
been.  The  second  fort  was  erected  17  leagues 
higher  up,  and  was  named  Fort  Chambly.  The 
third  one  was  erected  a  few  leagues  from  Lake 
Champlain  and  was  named  Fort  Sainte  Theresa, 
it  having  been  finished  on  St.  Theresa's  day 
The  site  of  a  fourth  fort  had  been  selected  by  Mr. 
de  Repentigny  in  the  very  lake,  but  the  season 
was  too  far  advanced  to  begin  its  erection  that 
year. 

CONSTRUCTION   OF  FORT  ST.    ANNB. 

Pierre  de  S.t.  Paul,  Sieur  de  La  Motte,  a  cap- 
tain of  the  regiment  of  Carrignan,  was  detailed  to 
carry  on  the  erection  of  the  fort.  Its  plan,  from 
the  map  and  model  found  in  the  third  volume  ot 


':ftiiiB.mmaiJia.ai'fe:M' ' 


67 


|cap- 
idto 
from 
le  oi 


the  Relatio7is,  seems  to  have  been  the  same  as  that 
of  the  forts  Richelieu  and  St.  Theresa.  The 
Richelieu  Fort  was  144  feet  in  length  b}'  96  feet 
broad.  In  measuring  the  site  occupied  by  Fort 
St.  Anne,  we  find  that  it  was  also  96  feet  broad, 
but  its  precise  length  cannot  now  be  ascertained, 
since  the  water  of  the  lake  has  eaten  up  one  of  its 
extremities.  At  Fort  St.  Theresa,  according  to 
Charlevoix,  there  was  a  double  palissade  15  feet 
in  height,  and  we  surmise  that  this  was  the  case 
also  in  Fort  St.  Anne.  There  was  a  bastion  in 
each  of  the  comers  of  th^  fort. 

We  read  what  follows  in  the  Jesuit  Relations 
for  1642,  regarding  the  first  Fort  Richelieu 
erected  by  Mr.  de  Montmagny  in  1642,  and 
burned  by  the  Iroquois  in  1646.  On  August 
13th  the  governor  arrived  on  the  Iroquois  river 
to  begin  the  erection  of  the  fort  on  the  site  which 
he  had  selected.  When  the  place  had  been 
cleared,  mass  was  said  on  it,  and  after  it  had  been 
blest,  cannons  were  fired,  and  they  had  a  salve 
of  musketry  in  honor  of  these  beginnings. 

The  same  thing  must  have  been  done  at  Fort 
St.  Anne.  Mr.  de  La  Motte  had  under  him 
about  three  hundred  men  whilst  the  work  was 
going  on.  We  know  not  to  any  certainty  on 
what  day  they  began  the  work,  but  according  to 
the  Relations^  they  were  finished  by  the  20th  of 
July.  The  construction  of  the  Fort  St.  Theresa 
was  begun  in  the  first  days  of  September  and 
ended  on  the  fifteenth  of  October.  Supposing  that 
the  Fort  St.  Anne  was  coUvStructed  in  the  same 


M 


■■i 


68 


i     :'' 


ill 


i 
1 


amount  of  time,  we  may  infer  thiat  Mr.  de  La 
Motte  took  possession  of  it  in  the  last  days  of 
May  or  the  beginning  of  June,  on  which  occasion 
the  first  mass  was  celebrated,  and  the  ground  was 
blessed.  Reverend  Dubois,  chaplain  of  the  regi- 
ment, was  probably  the  priest  who  assisted  Mr. 
de  La  Motte  and  his  soldiers  in  the  work,  for 
there  is  no  doubt  that  they  had  a  priest  among 
them,  they  being  vso  many,  so  far  from  other 
forts,  and  exposed  to  so  many  dangers.  There 
occurred  no  important  event  at  that  time  when 
the  soldiers  were  deprived  of  the  presence  and 
concourse  of  a  priest. 

THE   FIRST   MASS. 

Father  Jogues  is  the  first  priest  who  came  to 
Vermont  and  saw  the  Islands  and  shores  of  Lake 
Champlain  ;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  he  said 
mass  in  the  State  of  Vermont.  When  he  was 
made  prisoner  by  the  Iroquois,  they  stripped 
him  of  all  that  he  had,  and  whilst  accompanying 
them  in  their  hunting  expeditions  he  says  that 
his  only  treasures  were  a  small  office  book  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin,  a  small  book  of  the  following  of 
Christ,  and  a  little  cross  which  he  had  made. 

On  his  second  visit  he  went  as  official  embassa- 
dor and  passed  on  very  rapidly, 

When  he  went  a  third  time  to  the  Iroquois 
country,  he  could  have  carried  with  him  his 
chapel,  but  himself  says  that  he  knew  that  in  the 
beginning  he  would  be  deprived  of  all  the  sacra- 


(iO 


nients,  he  would  not  have  dared  to  offer  the  holy 
sacrifice  before  the  Indians  whilst  they  were  still 
idolaters.  He  simply  offered  himself  in  sacrifice, 
and  the  sacrifice  of  his  blood  was  accepted. 

I  think  that  the  first  mass  was  said  in  Vennont 
during  the  summer  of  1666,  by  Father  Dubois, 
Chaplain  of  the  regiment  of  Carrignan. 

As  the  fort  was  dedicated  to  St.  Anne  we  sup- 
pose that  July  26,  the  day  of  St.  Anne,  would  be 
the  most  proper  day  to  celebrate  the  anniversary 
of  the  first  mass  celebrated  in  our  State.  The 
day  of  the  benediction  of  the  fort,  was  a  great 
and  joyful  day  for  the  Catholics  of  the  place. 

As  yet  there  were  no  settlers  about  the  fort, 
though  it  may  be  that  some  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Quebec,  Three  Rivers  and  Montreal  had  accom- 
panied the  soldiers  of  Captain  de  l^aMotte.  These 
made  up  the  first  Catholic  congregation  of  Ver- 
mont. They  assembled  about  the  altar  at  the 
sound  of  the  bugle  and  drum.  These  were  men 
of  faith  and  prayer,  and  we  ma}''  surmise  how 
great  was  their  fervor  on  that  day,  seeing  them- 
selves so  far  away  from  their  native  country,  in 
the  midst  of  primitive  forests,  surrounded  with 
daring  treacherous  enemies.  St.  Anne  on  that 
day  became  the  protectress  of  our  country.  We 
think  we  hear  the  devout  colonists  sinp^  out  as 
we  do  now  ourselves.  Good  St.  Anne,  pray  for 
us. 


:!! 


:M 


70 


Tun  FIRST  CHAPEL  OF  ST.    ANNE. 

One  of  the  first  cares  of  the  French  when  they 
founded  a  new  fort,  was  to  prepare  everything 
necessary  for  the  celebration  of  the  holy  mysteries. 
The  missionaries  were  provided  with  portable 
altar,  but  the  places  fitted  for  the  altar,  were  often 
made  of  bark  and  evergreen  bushes,  such  as  we 
see  erected  in  country  places  for  repositories  on 
Corpus  Christi. 

Chapels  of  this  discription  answered  well  enough 
during  the  warm  season,  but  as  Father  Dolier 
de  Casson  spent  three  months  of  the  winter  in 
the  fort,  where  he  had  many  communions,  and 
held  devotions  every  day,  it  became  necessary  to 
construct  a  good  warm  chapel. 

To  say  mass  in  his  own  room  was  impossible, 
as  he  put  on  record,  for  this  room  was  so  small 
that  he  could  hardly  move  in  it.  Again  the  erec- 
tion of  a  chapel  of  fair  size  was  necessary  for  the 
exercises  of  a  mission  given  to  the  soldiers  by 
Fathers  Freniin,  Peyron  and  Bruyos  who  spent 
one  month  in  the  fort.  Finally  when  the  garrison 
found  that  Bishop  de  Laval  was  about  to  come 
and  visit,  they  would  certainly  have  built  a 
chapel  to  do  him  honor,  in  case  that  there  was 
not  one  there  before. 

O'Shea,  the  historian,  is  therefore  quite  correct 
when  he  says  that  a  chapel  existed  in  fort  St. 
Anne,  which  was  one  of  the  first  in  New  Eng- 
land, the  very  first  in  Vermont,  and  the  first 
Church  of  St.  Anne  in  the  United  States.     We 


71 


consider  it  probable  that  the  site  of  this  first 
chapel  within  the  fort  is  the  very  same  on  which 
stands  the  shrine  erected  by  Rev.  Joseph  Ker- 
lidou,  (1893.) 


irst 


DEATH  OF  DE  CHAZY. 

When  the  work  on  the  fort  was  finished,  the 
garrison  in  order  to  rest,  betool% themselves  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  chase.  They  formed  several  par- 
ties whose  duty  it  was  to  provide  game  for  the 
table.  One  day  one  of  the  officers,  Mr.  de  Chazy, 
started  with  six  companions  to  hunt  on  the  bank 
of  a  river  (the  Chazy  river)  a  short  distance  only 
from  the  fort  on  the  other  side  of  the  lake.  They 
had  no  suspicion  of  danger  for  nearly  all  the  Indian 
tribes  had  just  departed  to  Quebec,  to  bring  pres- 
ents and  swear  eternal  friendship  to  the  French. 
Mr.  de  Chazy  was  not  aware  of  the  treacherous 
spirit  of  the  Iroquois.  These  were  irritated  at 
the  construction  of  forts  along  the  river,  but  their 
anger  knew  no  bounds  when  they  ascertained  that 
they  were  building  fort  St.  Anne  on  the  shore  of 
the  lake  itself.  They  dared  not,  however,  to  at- 
tack the  intrepid  soldiers  of  the  garrison  who  were 
well  armed,  but  they  watched  for  an  opportunity 
to  surprise  them. 

When  they  saw  the  sportsmen  leave  the  fort, 
they  thought  this  was  a  chance  to  scalp  some  of 
their  enemies.  Their  plan  was  soon  made  out. 
Not  a  word,  not  a  noise  was  heard  to  indicate 
their  presence  ;  noiselessly  they  glide  through  the 


m. 


HiM 


IS 


"'It 


'1  I 


IW'^; 


72 


brush,  following  the  soldiers  step  by  step,  whwii 
on  a  sudden  they  rush  upon  them  uttering  fearful 
cries.  De  Chazy  and  two  of  his  companions 
defended  themselves  bravely,  but  they  were  soon 
overcome  by  numbers  and  fell  pierced  by  bullets. 
Their  companions  had  wished  to  come  to  help 
them,  but  the  Iroquois  had  soon  bound  their 
hands,  and  at  the  least  motion  they  would  have 
killed  them.        • 

Writers  do  not  agree  as  to  the  name  =»  and  num- 
ber of  the  victims  and  prisoners.  Did  Captain 
de  La  Motte  carry  the  body  of  DeChazy  to  the 
fort  and  have  it  interred  there,  or  did  the  canni- 
bals divide  it  among  themselves  for  one  of  their 
horrible  feasts,  this  is  more  than  I  could  find  out. 
The  Relations  for  i666  merely  says  :  Mr.  DeSorel 
who  was  in  command  at  Fort  Richelieu  made  up 
at  once  a  party  of  three  hundred  men  whom  he 
led  by  forced  marches  into,  the  country  of  the 
enemy  ;  but  when  within  twenty  leagues  only 
of  their  settlement  he  met  new  ambassadors  who 
brought  back  the  French  captured  near  Fort  St. 
Anne,  and  offered  every  satisfaction  for  the  mur- 
der of  those  whom  they  had  killed. 

The  name  Chazy  has  been  given  to  the  river 
on  the  bank  of  which  the  officer  of  that  name  was 
killed,  and  also  to  two  villages  about  the  same 
locality. 


73 


RENDEZVOUS  AT  FORT  ST.  ANNE. 


m 


VICTOROIUS   EXPEDITION   OF    MR.     DE   TRACY   IN 
THE  COUNTRY  OF  THE  IROQUOIS. 

Vice  Roy  DeTracy,  Bishop  DeLaval,  the  mis- 
sionaries and  the  colonists  had  done  all  in  their 
power  to  win  the  hearts  of  the  fierce  Iroquois  and 
inspire  them  with  better  sentiments.  They  would 
make  fair  promises,  and  declare  that  the  hatchet 
of  war  was  buried  for  ever,  but  they  would  soon 
forget  their  promises,  and  commit  fresh  outrages. 
This  explains  why  they  treacherously  killed  the 
soldiers  of  Fort  St.  Anne.  One  of  the  victims 
was  a  relative  of  Mr.  DeTracy.  He  was  much 
aggrieved  at  the  murder  of  the  brave  soldier, 
and  made  up  his  mind  to  attempt  a  great  expe- 
dition in  the  very  country  of  the  Iroquois,  not- 
withstanding all  their  protestations,  for  this  he 
thought  was  the  only  way  to  subdue  them.  He 
called  together  all  the  chiefs  of  his  little  army  and 
bid  them  to  rendezvous  at  Fort  St.  Anne  on  Sep- 
tember 28,   1666. 

On  the  14th  of  September  the  feast  of  the  Ex- 
altation of  the  Holy  Cross,  every  thing  was  ready 
for  the  start  at  Quebec.  The  troops  saluted 
Three  Rivers,  the  forts  Richelieu,  Chambly  and 
St.  Thersa,  as  they  sailed  past  them,  and  landed 
at  Fort  St.  Anne.  Here  they  were  welcomed 
by  a  salve  of  artillery,  such  as  they  had,  and 
by  joyous  acclamations.     The  whole  of  the  point 


74 


was  vSoon  covered  with  soldiers.  The  army  was 
made  up  of  600  men  of  the  regiment  of  Carrig- 
nan,  600  colonists,  and  100  Indians  of  the  Huron 
and  Algonquin  tribes.  The  commander-in- 
chief  was  Mr.  DeTracy  who  wished  to  share  in 
the  expedition  notwithstanding  his  great  age. 
Under  him  was  Mr.  DeCourcelles,  Saliere,  Chau- 
mond,  Chambly,  Borthier  and  I,eMoyne.  Rev. 
M.  Dubois  the  chaplain  at  Fort  St.  Anne,  Mr. 
Dolier  DeCasson,  apriest  of  St.  Sulpice,  the  rev- 
erend fathers  Albanel  and  Rafleix  S.  I.,  went 
along  to  minister  to  their  spiritual  wants.  They 
were  provided  with  every  thing  necessary  to  say 
mass,  and  the  troups  assisted  with  much  devotion 
at  the  holy  sacrifice.  At  the  foot  of  .some  trees 
they  had  put  up  confessionals,  and  these,  ca^ 
Mr.  Dolier  DeCazon  related,  were  besieged  day 
and  night.  One*might  think  they  had  come  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  good  St.  Anne  of  Lake  Champlain, 
and  not  to  prepare  for  an  expedition  against  the 
savages.  (The  cause  of  their  animation,  as 
mother  of  the  Incarnation  relates,  was  the  con- 
viction that  they  were  going  to  fight  for  the 
faith.  "At  least  500  soldiers  have  taken  the 
scapular  ;  we  have  the  honor  and  pleasure  of 
making  these.")  Before  starting  from  Quebec, 
Mr.  DeTracy,  with  many  officers,  had  gone  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  St.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  and  had 
given  to  the  church  (August  17,  1666,)  the  much 
admired  painting,  which  may  be  seen  to  this  day 
day  above  the  main  altar.  At  St.  Anne  of  Lake 
Champlain  the  Vice   Roy   and   his   army   placed 


75 


themselves  once  more  under  the  protection  of  this 
good  mother. 

On  September  the  28th  all  the  troops  had  not 
yet  arrived.  Mr.  DeCourcelles.  who  knew  the 
country  best,  and  was  anxious  to  obliterate  the 
remembrance  of  his  first  disastrous  expedition, 
started  ahead  with  400  men,  the  soldiers  of  Mon- 
treal with  Charles  LeMoyne  opening  the  march. 
The  bulk  of  the  army,  commanded  by  DeTracy, 
Salieres  and  DeChammot,  remained  a  few  days 
longer  at  the  fort,  and  started  on  the  3d  of  October 
only.  The  rear  guard  followed  him  closely  under 
the  command  of  Messrs.  DeChambly  and  Berthier. 

They  had  prepared  all  the  boats  needed  for  the 
expedition.  Three  hundred  of  them  were  ready, 
part  of  which  were  very  light  boats,  and  others 
were  made  of  bark  which  had  room  for  five  or  six 
perspns  only .  When  they  had  crossed  a  lake  or 
a  river  each  party  had  to  carry  its  boat,  which 
was  tedious  indeed,  but  not  so  troublesome  as  the 
carrying  of  two  small  cannons  which  they  took  to 
the  last  settlements  of  the  Iroquois  in  order  the 
more  easily  to  destroy  their  fortification.  yRela- 
tions  1666.) 

Rev.  Dolier  De  Casson  being  endowed  with 
great  physical  strength  did  not  spare  himself,  and 
helped  some  of  his  companions  to  carry  their  bur- 
dens. As  a  reward  for  ray  services,  he  said,  they 
would  give  me  a  small  piece  of  bread,  which  was 
a  welcome  present  indeed,  owing  to  the  scarcity 
of  provisions  at  this  time. 

Orders  had  been  given  to  the  troops  to  march 


''  (it? 


76 


silently  so  as  to  surprise  the  enemy.  But  the 
sentinels  of  the  Iroquois  had  sighted  the  army 
from  the  hills  along  the  lake,  and  they  gave  the 
alarm.  No  one  was  found  in  the  first  settlements 
of  the  Indians.  They  noticed  great  fires,  how- 
ever, in  the  most  distant  of  their  villages,  and 
they  expected  to  meet  there  with  strong  resistance. 
They  had  to  destroy  a  triple  palissade  twenty  feet 
in  height  and  dislodge  the  enemy  from  their  four 
bastions,  which  the}'^  seemed  determined  to  de- 
fend. 

The  drum  was  beating  the  march,  and  the  army 
Was  advancing  for  a  regular  attack ;  suddenly  the 
Indians  struck  with  fright  fled  to  the  woods. 
Later  on  they  explained  why  they  fled  without 
fighting.  They  had  imagined  that  the  army  of 
De  Tracy  was  innumerable,  and  imagined  that 
the  sound  of  the  drum  was  naught  but  the  voice 
of  demons,  of  whom  they  were  much  afraid. 

In  the  village  they  found  none  but  some  per- 
sons too  old  to  follow  their  friends,  and  the  bodies 
of  two  or  three  Indians  of  another  tribe  which 
tliey  had  partly  burnt. 

The  Vice  Roy  planted  the  cross  there,  and  caused 
the  Te  Deuni  to  be  sung  and  mass  to  be  celebrated , 
in  thanksgiving  for  a  victory  which  had  not  cost 
them  one  drop  of  blood. 

The  palissades  were  burnt  and  all  the  houses 
and  provisions  vere  destroyed,  and  they  prepared 
immediately  to  return. 


77 


SICKNESS   AT   FORT  ST.  ANNK.      REV.  DOUER  DE 
CASSON  IS  SENT  THERE. 

At  the  fort  on  Isle  La  Motte  they  waited  with 
anxiety  for  the  return  of  the  troops,  and  great  was 
the  joy  here  when  they  learned  of  the  success 
which  had  been  so  easily  obtained.  They  had, 
however,  to  deplore  the  death  of  eight  of  the  sol- 
diers, who  were  drowned  in  a  tempest  on  the  lake. 
One  of  them  was  Mr.  De  Luc,  the  lieutenant  of 
a  company  which  had  often  distinguished  itself  by 
its  bravery  in  France  and  in  Canada.  At  Quebec 
Mgr.  De  Laval,  who  had  offered  many  prayers 
for  the  success  of  the  expedition,  caused  a  Te 
Deum  to  be  sung  in  thanksgiving  for  its  success. 

After  this  event  the  troops  were  ganisoned  in 
Ihe  several  forts.  Sixty  men  only  were  left  at 
Fort  St.  Anne.  For  some  time  they  were  in  con- 
stant fear  of  attacks  from  the  Iroquois,  as  they 
were  the  nearer  to  their  settlements.  At  this  junc- 
ture they  were  visited  by  an  epedemic,  which 
spread  desolation  among  them.  Chambly  was 
also  visited  by  the  same  scourge  at  the  same  time. 
Rev.  Father  DuBois.  the  chaplain,  was  at  the 
time  in  Chanibl}^  but  there  was  no  priest  in  Fort 
St.  Anne.  At  this,  De  Tracy  gave  the  informa- 
tion to  Father  Souart,  superior  of  the  Sulpicians, 
who  told  one  of  his  priests  to  prepare  himself  to 
start. 

The  priest  was  Rev.  Dollier  De  Ca.sson,  who 
was  well  worthy  to  serve  the  vSoldiers  as  chaplain. 
He  had  been  captain  of  cavalry  under  Marshal 


ii^. 


m 

if 

»■& 


1 


78 


,1' 


De  Turenne,  before  entering  the  ecclesiastical 
state.  He  was  a  man  of  remarkable  physic- 
al strength,  who  could  carry  one  man  sitting 
upon  each  of  his  hands.  Although  he  was  af- 
flicted at  this  time  by  a  sore  knee,  and  much 
weakened  by  bleeding,  he  resolved  to  start  at 
once,  and  as  two  soldiers  from  Fort  Chambly  had 
just  arrived  at  Montreal,  he  went  in  their  com- 
pany after  only  one  day's  rest.  This  was  a  very 
feeble  escort,  so  that  these  brave  colonists,  Charles 
LeMoyne,  Mogeon  De  Braggat  and  James  LeBer, 
volunteered  to  accompany  him  and  share  in  all 
his  dangers. 

The  brave  missionary  started  in  their  company, 
wearing  snow  shoes,  carrying  a  heavy  load  on  his 
shoulders,  and  arrived  at  Fort  Chambly,  but  the 
officers  of  this  place  were  in  such  dread  of  the  Iro- 
quois that  for  24  hours  they  obstinately  refused  to 
give  him  an  escort  to  Fort  St.  Anne.  When,  how- 
ever, they  saw  him  determined  to  start,  and  as 
they  felt "  it  disgraceful  for  officers  to  show  less 
courage  than  a  missionary,  they  decided  to  give 
him  an  escort  of  ten  soldiers. 

On  the  journey  to  the  fort  he  had  another  occa- 
sion to  manifest  his  courage  and  the  ardor  of  his 
charity.  They  had  to  walk  on  the  lake  which 
was  frozen,  and  the  ice  broke  under  the  steps  of 
one  of  the  soldiers.  They  all  thought  he  was  lost, 
happily,  however,  he  put  his  rifle  across  the  hole 
and  did  not  go  down  at  once,  but  in  vain  did  he 
attempt  to  come  out  on  account  of  his  snow  shoes. 
None  of  the  soldiers  dared  to  go  and  help  him,  but 


Id 


the  Rev.  Father  helped  by  one  Mr  Darienne,  went 
to  save  him,  and  succeeded  afler  much  fatigue 
and  being  exposed  himself  to  go  through  the  ice. 

MR.    DOI.UER  AT   FORT  ST.    ANNE. 

Out  of  sixty  soldiers  who  composed  the  garri- 
son, forty  were  attacked  with  the  scurv^y,  two 
had  already  died  without  the  sacraments  and 
many  seemed  to  be  at  the  point  of  death.  Hence 
the  arrival  of  the  priest  was  ardently  desired, 
and  when  Captain  DeLamotte,  commandant  of 
the  fort,  Mr.  de  la  Duraiitaye  and  the  the  other 
officers  saw  him  come  at  a  distance,  they  hurried 
to  meet  him  and  kissed  him.  This  epidemic  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  garrison  had  no  other 
food  but  salted  meat,  and  flour  which  had  been 
spoiled  on  the  sea.  When  this  became  known 
to  Father  Souart,  the  superior  of  the  Sulpicious, 
he  sent  to  Father  Dollier  plenty  of  choice  pro- 
visions, which  enabled  him  to  save  the  lives  of 
many  soldiers,  and  on  the  account  of  the  pestilen- 
tial air  of  the  fort,  he  caused  the  sick  soldiers  to 
be  sent  to  the  hospital  at  Montreal,  as  soon  as 
they  were  strong  enough  to  be  removed. 

The  same  reverend  father  remarks  in  his  History 
of  Montreal  thdX  he  experienced  many  spiritual 
consolations  in  Fort  St.  Anne  in  the  midst  of 
great  corporal  sufferings,  because  of  the  holy  life 
they  began  to  lead  there.  All  the  soldiers,  whether 
sick  or  well,  lived  as  if  they  had  received  com- 
munion every  day,  and  in  fact  communions  were 
very  frequent.       The    time   for   mass    and    the 


Mill 


80 


prayers  were  regulated,  and  every  one  wa.s  faith- 
ful to  attend.  No  kind  of  improper  language  was 
heard  in  the  fort,  and  the  piety  of  the  soldiers  was 
a  source  of  delight  to  their  chaplain.  He  admin- 
istered the  last  sacraments  to  eleven  of  those  sol- 
diers who  were  as  well  prepared  to  die  as  could  be 
desired.  At  each  return  trip  from  Montreal  he 
received  a  provision  of  delicacies,  and  the  giving 
of  these  to  the  sick  made  them  find  him  very  elo- 
quent. When  he  was  not  in  their  room  or  in  his 
own  to  take  a  little  rest,  he  would  run  to  and  fro 
between  the  bastions,  to  inhale  some  fresh  air  to 
avoid  the  pestilence.  *'They  might  have  taken 
me  for  a  crazy  man,"  he  says,  *4iad  they  not 
known  how  necessary  was  this  violent  exercise  to 
escape  the  epidemic. 

"About  this  time  we  thought  we  would  be  at- 
tacked by  the  Iroquois,  but  it  turned  out  that 
what  had  been  seen  were  ambassadors  sent  to  sue 
for  peace,  being  accompanied  by  some  Frenchmen 
whom  they  brought  back  from  their  country.  As 
soon  as  they  saw  them  come  they  caused  great 
fires  to  be  lighted  in  all  the  cabins,  and  they 
closed  the  gates,  so  as  to  make  them  believe  that 
the  fort  was  full  of  people.  They  told  them 
moreover  that  it  was  a  wonder  that  they  had  not 
been  killed,  since  there  were  soldiers  in  ambush 
everywhere  along  the  lake.  This  the  Iroquois 
believed  to  be  true,  for  as  they  went  from  the  fort 
to  Montreal  they  saw  14  or  15  convalescents  com- 
ing foward,  and  about  to  kill  them,  when  one  of 


81 


the  returning  prisoners  exclaimed,    "Friends,  do 
not  fire,  they  come  on  a  mission  of  peace." 


1HE    REV.    FATHERS    FREMIN,    PIERRON    AND 
BRUYAS,  SPEND  ONE  MONTH  IN   THE  FORT. 

In  the  spring  of  1667,  when  the  scurvy  had 
disappeared,  Rev.  Dollier  de  Casson  returned  to 
Montreal.  As  the  garrison  of  the  fort  were  now 
without  fear  from  the  Iroquois,  the  soldiers  would 
now  come  out  to  hunt  and  fish  and  thus  obtain 
wholesome  food.  The  Iroquois  after  peace  had 
been  concluded,  had  asked  for  missionaries,  and 
Mr.  de  Tracy  cheerfully  granted  their  request. 

They  chose,  says  the  Relations  for  1667,  Rev. 
Fathers  Fremin  and  John  Pierron  for  the  Ajnier, 
and  Father  James  Bruyas  for  the  mission  of 
Onnecouk.  The  three  fathers,  after  receiving  the 
blessing  of  the  Bishop  of  Petrea,  started  in  July 
last  with  the  Indian  ambassadors,  and  as  they 
came  to  Fort  St.  Anne,  they  learned  that  a  troop 
of  fifty  or  sixty  Mohicans  were  waiting  in  am- 
bush along  the  lake  in  order  to  kill  the  ambassa- 
dors of  the  Iroquois,  with  whom  they  are  at  war. 

The  fathers  regretted  much  this  delay;  but  the 
soldiers  considered  it  as  a  blessing,  as  they  had 
the  pleasure  of  their  presence  for  a  longer  time, 
and  the  occasion  of  celebrating  worthily  the  feast 
of  lli^ir  patroness.  They  could  have  mass  every 
day  and  the  occasion  to  receive  the  sacraments. 

The  missionaries  remained  in  the  fort  about  one 


82 


:l  :    % 
I     I'- 


,:j!  * 


i  i:' 


month.  This  delay,  according  to  the  /delations 
for  1668,  permitted  us  to  be  somewhat  useful  to 
the  soldiers  by  giving  them  some  kind  of  a  mis- 
sion. We  at  last  started  on  the  eve  of  the  Saint 
Bartholomew,  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
and  rested  for  the  night  about  one  league  from 
the  fort,  and  ever  since,  both  by  night  and  day, 
we  went  on  prosperously  with  our  journey  with- 
out finding  a  clue  to  the  enemy.  They  went  on 
the  south  side  of  the  lake  on  their  return  to  their 
country,  and  we  kept  to  the  north  side.  Though 
working  at  th^  oar  from  morning  to  night  in 
order  to  relieve  our  companions,  we  gaily  trav- 
ersed this  great  lake — too  well  known  by  the 
shipwreck  of  many  of  our  countrymen,  and  quite 
lately  by  that  of  Mr.  de  Corlar,  commandant  of 
a  fort  of  the  Hollanders,  near  Agnier.  We  ar- 
rived at  a  point  three-quarters  of  a  league  from 
the  falls  of  Lake  du  St.  Sacrement.  We  all 
stopped  at  this  place,  not  knowing  the  reason  for 
it,  when  we  saw  our  Indians  picking  up  flints  for 
their  guns  on  the  shore.  This  we  did  not  mind 
at  this  time;  but  we  were  told  since  by  the  Iro- 
quois that  they  never  fail  to  stop  here  in  order  to 
do  homage  to  a  nation  of  invisible  men  who 
dwell  there  at  the  bottom  of  the  lake,  who  make 
it  their  business  to  prepare  flints  for  the  rifles  of 
voyageurs,  provided  they  do  them  homage  by 
presenting  them  tobacco,  and  their  gift  of  these 
flints  is  in  proportion  of  what  they  receive.  These 
submarine  dwellers  travel  in  canoes  like  the  Iro- 
quois, and  when  their  great  captain  throws  him- 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


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Photographic 

Sdences 

Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  M580 

(716)  873-4S03 


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\       ■         i 

BISHOP  De  LAVAI^. 


83 


self  into  the  water  in  order  to  enter  his  palace, 
the  noise  is  so  great  that  it  fills  with  terror  all 
those  who  have  no  knowledge  of  this  powerful 
spirit  and  of  his  little  men.  % 

The  three  fathers  went  to  the  village  Gaud- 
avuague  where  Father  Jogues  had  been  killed, 
and  here  they  now  made  many  conversions.  The 
hearts  of  the  Ajnier  were  entirely  changed.  The 
expedition  of  de  Tracy  under  the  auspices  of  St. 
Anne  de  Beaupre  and  of  St.  Anne  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  had  humbled  their  pride,  and  the  prayers 
and  death  of  Father  Jogues  were  beginning  to 
bear  their  fruit. 


r 


^ 


BISHOP   LAVAL   AT    FORT   ST.    ANNE — 1 668. 

Since  Fort  Ste.  Anne  had  been  built,  Mon- 
seigneur  Laval,  first  bishop  of  Quebec,  had  on 
many  occavSions  heard  it  mentioned,  and  the 
writer  of  his  life  has  expressed  the  opinion  that 
he  might  himself  have  suggested  the  name  of 
St.  Anne  to  be  given  to  the  fort.  He  had  blessed 
the  army  and  the  missionaries  who  stopped  there, 
and  although  Fort  St.  Anne  was  a  great  ways 
from  Quebec,  and  the  travelling  very  difficult,  he 
resolved  to  come  and  visit  it. 

In  1668  Monseigneur  Laval  was  only  yet  Vicar 
ApOvStolic,  with  the  title  of  "Bishop  of  Petree. 
He  became  Bishop  of  Quebec  only  the  first  of 
October,  1674.  His  jurisdiction  extended  over 
all  the  countr}^  that  forms  to-day  the  United 
States   and  Canada,   from   New  Foundland  and 


84 


the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  be- 
yond the  great  lakes.  The  life  of  a  man,  says 
Mr.  de  la  Tour,  would  hardly  suffice  to  visit  that 
immense  diocese,  if  it  were  peopled,  as  it  covers 
all  North  America,  from  the  Hudson  Bay  to  the 
lands  of  Spain.  Bishop  Suarez  came  to  Florida 
in  1528,  but  did  not  stay  there  very  long.  Mon- 
seigneur  Laval  can  be  truly  called  the  first  bishop 
of  North  America.  To-day,  in  the  country  com- 
prised under  his  jurisdiction,  there  are  about  one 
hundred  archbishops  and  bishops  with  thousands 
of  priests  and  many  millions  of  Catholics. 

Bishop  Carroll,  made  first  bishop  of  Baltimore 
on  November  5th,  1789,  was  his  successor  as 
bivshop  of  the  States  north  of  the  Mississippi. 
Two  of  the  bishops  who  followed  Monseigneur 
Laval  as  bishop  of  Quebec,  Mgr.  Desgly  and 
Mgr.  Hubert,  wrote  to  Bishop  Carroll  to  ask  him 
to  provide  priests  for  the  missions  of  Illinois  and 
Detroit,  which  now  belonged  to  him. 

By  the  treaty  of  1783,  the  lands  south  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  river,  from  the  forty-fifth  degree  of 
latitude,  had  been  conceded  to  the  United  States. 
Vermont,  Lake  Champlain  and  its  Islands  were 
separated  from  New  France  and  Canada,  ^nd  be- 
came part  of  the  United  States.  Isle  LaMotte 
seems  to  be  the  only  place  outside  of  Canada 
visited  by  Bishop  Laval.  When  asked  what  his 
opinion  was  on  that  respect.  Rev.  Father  Gosse- 
lin,  author  of  the  life  of  Bishop  Laval,  answered, 
that  it  seemed  certain  to  him  Monseigneur  Laval 
came  to  Fort  St.  Anne  in  Isle  LaMotte  when  he 


85 


made  his  pastoral  visit  of  1668.  There  were  not 
then  as  to-day  beautiful  steamboats  on  the  St. 
lyawrence  and  I^ake  Champlain.  The  good  bishop 
had  to  travel  in  a  canoe,  to  walk  across  the  woods 
and  the  marshes,  to  avoid  the  falls  of  the  Riche- 
lieu river.  But  Mgr.  Laval  was  a  true  mission- 
ary, ready  to  make  any  sacrifice,  to  undergo  any 
work  and  fatigue  for  the  salvation  of  souls.  (They 
have  seen  him  hundreds  of  times,  says  his  biogra- 
pher, going  to  administer  the  sacraments  to  the 
sick  in  the  city  and  in  the  country,  rowing  in  a 
canoe  during  the  summer,  walking  on  snow-shoes 
in  winter,  and  carrying  on  his  back  everything 
required  for  mass,  and  a  piece  of  bread  in  his 
pocket.  He  travelled  sometimes  three  and  even 
six  miles  to  go  and  say  mass  in  some  poor  cabin. 
After  offering  up  the  holy  sacrifice  and  giving  the 
sacrament  to  the  dying,  he  came  back  in  the  same 
manner,  eating  on  the  way  his  piece  of  bread  for 
breakfast.  That  holy  man,  great  by  the  nobility 
of  his  name,  and  more  yet  by  his  good  qualities, 
made  his  pastoral  visit  in  a  bark  canoe,  accompan- 
ied generally  by  a  priest  and  two  farmers  to  man- 
age the  boat.  His  crosier  was  made  of  wood  and 
his  mitre  of  poor  material,  as  well  as  all  the  other 
vestments  that  are  required  by  a  bishop.) 

Two  different  books  speak  of  the  visit  c^  Bishop 
Laval  to  Fort  St.  Anne  :  '*  The  Relations  of  the 
Jesuit  Fathers,"  and  '*  The  Historical  Letters  of 
Mary  of  the  Incarnation." 

On  page  23  of  the  Relations  iox  1668,  it  is  said  : 
*  *  All  the  erring  tribes  of  the  Indians  having  met 


SJi\\ 


1 


I 


^1! 


w 


II 


86 


at  Tadoussac  Indian  village  at  the  mouth  of  the 
River  Saguenay,  had  the  happiness  some  time 
after  to  be  blessed  by  the  presence  of  *  Mgr.  de 
Petree.'  Bishop  Laval.  He  had  made  all  his  visits 
in  a  canoe,  that  is  to  say,  in  a  little  boat  of  bark. 
After  having  visited  every  village  from  Quebec  to 
Fort  St.  Anne,  which  is  the  farthest  of  all  the 
forts,  at  the  entrance  of  Lake  Champlain,  he  came 
also  to  give  a  share  of  his  blessings,  about  the  end 
of  June,  to  our  church  of  Tadoussac." 

Mary  of  the  Incarnation  writes  in  the  78th  of 
her  Historical  letters,  bearing  the  date  of  Septem- 
ber I  St,  1668  :  "The  bishop  went  to  visit  them, 
(the  Montagnais  Indians,)  and  he  gave  the  sac- 
rament of  confirmation  to  all  those  who  were  found 
prepared  to  receive  it.  His  charity  had  induced 
him,  some  time  before,  to  ko  and  visit  all  the 
forts,  even  the  one  that  is  nearest  to  the  Mohawk 
country,  and  there  also  he  gave  the  same  sacra- 
ment to  those  who  had  not  yet  received  it." 

Monseigneur  Gagnon,  secretary  of  His  Emi- 
nence, Cardinal  Tachereau,  having  charge  of  the 
registers,  had  the  kindness  to  communicate  all  the 
information  he  could  find  so  as  to  know  the  dates 
of  this  visitation.  It  is  easy  to  understand  that, 
travelling  as  he  did,  and  for  such  a  long  time. 
Bishop  Laval  could  not  keep,  day  by  day,  an  ac- 
count of  his  travels  and  many  of  his  notes  may 
have  been  lost. 

The  registers  show  that  in  the  year  1668,  he 
was  in  Montreal  on  May  nth,  and  in  Chambly 
on  May  20th ;  in  Tadoussac  at  the  end  of  June 


87 


and  beginning  of  July.  In  the  registers  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  other  places  nor  of  the  humber  of 
people  that  he  confirmed.  He  must  then  have 
visited  Fort  St.  Anne  and  the  other  forts  between 
May  nth  and  May  20th,  or  between  May  20th 
and  the  end  of  June.  As  St.  Anne  was  the  far- 
thest fort  and  only  one  day's  journey  from  Cham- 
bly,  it  is  probable  that  he  visited  it  from  there  in 
the  month  of  May. 

His  visit  of  1669  is  almost  the  same,  but  the 
names  of  more  places  are  given,  for  the  registers 
show  that  he  was  in  Montreal  the  first  and  the 
12th  of  May,  at  Sault  St.  Louis  the  sixth  of  May, 
at  Chambly  the  21st,  then  back  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence, he  was  in  the  village  of  Champlain  on  the 
24th  of  May,  and  at  Batiscan  on  the  25th.  The 
Relations  do  not  mention  the  visits  of  1669.  and 
no  more  is  said  about  Fort  St.  Anne,  but  Bishop 
Laval  may  also  have  visited  St.  Anne's  fort  in 
1669,  as  he  came  to  Chambly,  which  was  so  near 
it. 

The  historical  letters  of  Mary  of  the  Incarna- 
tion say  that  he  gave  confirmation  wherever  he 
went.  We  might  infer  from  this  that  he  also  gave 
confirmation  at  Fort  St.  Anne,  as  many  who 
were  there  had  no  chance  to  receive  it  before. 

Bishop  Laval  having  travelled  all  day  to  come 
from  Chambly  to  Isle  LaMotte  had  to  stop  there 
at  least  one  night,  and  therefore  offered  in  the 
morning  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the  mass. 

It  is  no  small  favor  for  the  diocese  of  Burling- 
ton, and  particularly  for  St.  Anne's  point  of  Isle 


88 


LaMotte,  to  have  possessed  for  some  time  the  holy 
bishop  of  Quebec  and  to  have  received  his  bless- 
ing. 

To  know  that  he  said  mass  there,  that  he  gave 
Communion  at  least,  and  may  be  Confirmation, 
that  he  knelt  down  to  pray  and  invoke  the  good 
St.  Anne,  will  be  a  great  incitement  to  the  pil- 
grims who  now  will  come  to  implore  here  the 
mercy  of  God  and  to  ask  His  favors. 

For  Bishop  Laval  was  a  man  of  God,  a  true 
apostle,  like  the  first  followers  of  Christ.  He  died 
the  6th  of  May,  1708,  at  the  age  of  eighty -six, 
and  many  have  since  said  that  he  was  a  saint. 

The  church  alone  has  the  right  to  give  publicly 
this  name  to  a  person  after  death,  if  there  are 
proofs  that  it  is  merited.  But  in  our  own  partic- 
ular prayers  we  are  not  forbidden  to  call  on  those 
whose  life  appears  to  us  so  full  of  good  deeds  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  to 
ask  their  intercession. 

And  now  we  have  reasons  to  hope  that  Mgr. 
Laval  may  soon  be  invoked  even  publicly  in  the 
church.  On  the  23rd  of  August,  1890,  The  Con- 
gregation of  Rites,  to  whom  is  given  the  charge 
of  considering  the  life  and  works  of  those  for 
whom  particular  honor  is  asked  in  the  church, 
has  declared  him  Venerable,  and  on  the  24th  of 
September  of  the  same  year^  Our  Holy  Father, 
the  Pope  Leo  XIII  has  approved  this  decision. 

Yet,  before  he  is  declared  a  ^int,  some  miracles 
must  be  performed  by  his  intercession.  Let  us 
pray  that  this  favor  may  soon   be  granted.     Let 


89 


the  pilgrims  of  St.  Anne  of  Isle  LaMotte  recom- 
mend themselves  to  him,  and  beg  that  by  his  name 
some  great  cures  may  be  obtained  that  may  hasten 
the  day  of  his  beatification. 

There  is  an  account  given  in  the  papers  of  a 
great  favor  obtained  by  a  pious  Catholic  who  had 
recourse  to  him.  The  Semaine  Religieuse,  Que- 
bec, says  :  *'Mgr.  LaFlamme,  Superior  of  the 
Quebec  Seminary,  has  written  us  a  letter  about  a 
cure  obtained  by  Protais  Dion.  This  man  for- 
merly lived  in  the  parish  of  Ste.  Julie  de  Somer- 
set, and  is  now  living  in  Inverness,  Megan  tic 
county.  He  is  71  years  old,  and  an  honest  farmer 
whose  word  can  be  trusted.  When  he  was  31 
years  old,  that  is  40  years  ago,  he  was  struck  with 
a  lever,  and  since  then  has  been  suffering  from 
hernia.  Last  January,  1894,  the  illness  became 
so  serious  that  the  poor  man  was  unable  to  work. 
He  could  not  bear  a  bandage  to  be  applied  to  the 
parts  affected,  and  began  to  lose  courage  thinking 
that  he  was  going  to  die.  He  says  that  he 
always  had  a  great  veneration  for  Mgr.  DeLaval's 
memory.  Suddenly  the  thought  came  to  him  to 
invoke  his  intercession  in  his  illness,  remember- 
ing that  the  priest  had  said  to  have  recourse  to 
him,  that  if  any  cures  were  obtained  his  canoniza- 
tion would  soon  be  proclaimed.  He  then  recom- 
mended himself  to  him,  and  on  awakening  next 
morning  to  his  great  surprise  found  himself  per- 
fectly cured,  the  pain  had  ceased,  the  tumor  which 
for  forty  years  had  given  him  so  much  trouble 
had  disappeared.     Since  then  he  has  been  per- 


li 


90 


fectly  well,  he  can  do  any  kind  of  work,  and  can 
even  jump  as  when  he  was  a  young  man  before 
the  accident. 

Dr.  Frechette  says  that  he  finds  in  the  cure  of 
Mr.  Dion  something  very  extraordinary,  as  the 
cure  of  hernia  is  always  difficult  and  generally 
takes  a  long  time,  and  Mr.  Dion  became  well 
without  the  help  of  any  doctor  or  medicine.     . 


DISTINGUISHED    TRAVELLERS     ON     LAKE  CHAM- 
PLAIN.      THE   FORT   IS   ABANDONED. 

About  two  years  after  the  visit  of  Bishop  Laval, 
Captain  LaMotte  left  Fort  St.  Anne  and  was  for 
a  while  Governor  of  Montreal  in  1670.  The  his- 
tory of  Canada  does  not  speak  of  him  after  this 
date.  The  Histoire  de  la  Colonic  Francaise  says 
only  that  Louis  XIV,  King  of  France,  promised 
him  ;^  1 500  as  soon  as  he  was  established  perma- 
nently. Shea,  in  the  History  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  mentions  him  as  being  with  De  La  Salle, 
and  at  Fort  Niagara,  accompanied  by  the  Recollect 
Father  Hannepin. 

I  could  not  find  exactly  when  Fort  St.  Anne 
was  abandoned.  Mr.  Viger,  one  of  the  most  re- 
liable historians  of  Canada,  says:  * 'After  the 
visit  of  Monseigneur  De  Laval  no  more  is  said  of 
Fort  St.  Anne,  which  certainly  was  abandoned  in 
1691. 

According  to  (N.  Y.  Col.  Doc.  4,  p.  195),  it 
was  destroyed  before  1690;  for  it  says  that  dur- 


91 


id  can 
before 

ire  of 
LS  the 
lerally 
i  well 


:ham- 


^aval, 
IS  for 
E  his- 
r  this 
t  says 
tnised 
*rma- 
tholic 
Salle, 
ollect 

Anne 
St  re- 
•  the 
lid  of 
edin 

),   it 
dur- 


ing the  war  of  1690,  the  western  Iroquois  were  to 
meet  at  Fort  St.  Anne  of  Isle  La  Motte,  an  aban- 
doned French  work  on  Lake  Champlain. 

Captain  John  Shuyler,  in  his  Journal,  writes 
also  that  his  party  returning  from  an  expedition 
against  Chambly  stopped  August  24th,  1690,  on 
the  ruins  of  old  Fort  St.  Anne. 

The  French,  before  retiring,  burned  the  cabins 
and  the  palisades.  As  they  were  at  peace  then 
with  the  Indians,  they  retired  wilfully  thinking 
that  there  was  no  need  of  this  fort  any  longer. 
Fort  St.  John  and  Fort  St.  Therese  in  the  river 
were  abandoned  in  the  same  way.  Fort  St.  Louis 
in  Chambly  was  the  only  one  kept.  ^ 

For  twenty  years  from  1666  to  1687  no  great 
war  party  traveled  over  Lake  Champlain,  and 
the  missionaries  went  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
Indians  in  Vermont  and  New  York  State,  with- 
out danger. 

When  Governor  Dougan  came  to  New  York, 
war  began  again,  although  Governor  General 
Denonville  tried,  by  sending  Father  Vaillant  de 
Gueslis,  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  and  the 
Hudson,  to  New  York,  to  negotiate  with  him  to 
maintain  peace.  It  is  about  this  time  that  the 
Abanakis  Indians  appear  on  Lake  Champlain. 
Having  been  driven  from  Maine  by  the  English, 
in  1680,  the  governor  of  Canada  gave  them  the 
country,  which  extends  from  the  River  Chaudiere, 
on  the  St.  Laurent,  to  the  River  Richelieu  and 
Lake  Champlain.  They  had  the  missionaries 
with  them  since    1646,  when   Father   Druillette, 


mt 


111  >:lfl 


ill 

¥1 


I 


il 


D2 


S.  J.  began  to  preach  the  gospel  to  them.  They 
received  the  Word  of  God  with  joy,  were  soon 
converted,  and  to  this  day,  have  kept  the  faith. 

They  had  great  devotion  to  St.  Anne,  having 
taken  her  as  the  patroness  of  their  tribe.  The 
church  that  was  built  for  them,  on  the  Penobscot 
in  1688  by  Father  Thury  of  Quebec,  was  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Anne.  So  was  their  church  in  the 
St.  Johns  river  visited  by  Bishop  Plessis  in  18 15. 

Their  principal  settlement  in  Canada  was  on 
the  River  St.  Fran9ois.  The  church  built  in 
1 701  was  dedicated  to  St.  Francis  of  Sales. 
Father  Jacques  Bigot  was  their  pastor  there  for 
seven  years,  1701  to  1708,  then  Father  Lagard 
lor  one  year  followed  by  Father  Joseph  Aubery, 
who  remained  with  them  forty-six  years. 

The  Abanakis  were  great  travellers,  going  to 
camp  from  one  place  to  another,  according  to  the 
season,  for  fishing  and  hunting,  or  making  war 
on  their  enemies. 

prom  1687  to  1760  we  find  them  often  on  Lake 
Champlain,  on  the  Missisquoi  river,  on  the  Wi- 
nooski  and  on  Otter  Creek. 

On  their  great  expeditions  they  always  had  the 
missionaries  with  them,  and  Father  Joseph 
Aubery  must  have  said  mass  in  many  places  in 
Vermont  as  Father  Druillette  did  in  Maine. 
Father  Druillette  says  (Relat.  1666):  "  I  accom- 
panied them  in  their  hunting  expeditions  and 
said  mass  as  often  as  I  could  in  the  forests.  The 
Abenakis  have  a  particular  devotion  to  the  night, 
Qri  which  the  Son  of  God  was  born.     On  Christ- 


n 
o 
o 

• 

11 
cl 


m' 


98 


^'^\^ 


mas  night,  they  built  a  small  chapel  with  branches 
of  cedar  and  spruce,  to  remind  them  of  the  stable 
of  Bethlehem.  They  asked  the  priest  to  perform 
in  it  all  the  ceremonies  that  they  have  in  the 
churches  on  that  day." 

They  had  a  permanent  chapel  on  the  Missis- 
quoi  river,  near  Swanton,  on  the  Highgate  side, 
for  a  good  many  years,  it  being  there  yet  when  the 
first  English  settlers  came,  1775.  When  in  1757 
Mr.  de  Vaudreuil  made  his  expedition  against 
Fort  William  Henry,  il'ere  were  in  the  army  600 
Abenakis.  They  came  iirst  to  St.  Johns  and  then 
went  to  Lake  Cliari  jlaiii  in  :  00  canoes  Many 
priests  accompanied  then.  At  Carrillon  (Ticon- 
deroga) ,  high  mass  wr  s  celebrated  and  the  Aben- 
akis gave  to  all  the  example  of  great  piety  and 
devotion. 

In  1 73 1  the  French,  anxious  to  become  masters 
of  Lake  Champlain,  built  Fort  St.  Frederic  on 
the  Pointe  a  la  Chevelure  (Crown  Point)  and  for 
28  years  they  had  the  control  of  the  lake.  The 
Recollect  Fathers  were  appointed  chaplains  to  the 
army  and  lived  with  the  soldiers  in  the  fort  where 
they  had  a  large  chapel.  In  the  same  year,  17311^ 
a  wind-mill  was  built  on  the  point  called  then 
Pointe  aux  Algonquins  (Point  of  the  Algonquins) 
and  to-day,  Wind  Mill  Point,  in  the  town  of 
Alburg.  Here  also  there  was  to  be  a  chapel  40 
feet  by  20,  according  to  the  deed  given  to  Sieur 
Foucault  1 73 1,  1733,  approved  by  the  Bishop  of 
Quebec,  and   recorded  in   the  (Books  of  the  In- 


' '  'S 


1  • 


' 


m 


!!; 


11: 


m 


fiiii 


94 


tendance,  Quebec) ;  there  were  fourteen  families 
living  on  the  Point  in  1734. 

We  have  the  names  of  twelve  Recollect  priests 
who  were  chaplains  of  Fort  St.  Frederic  and  signed 
their  names  in  the  Register,  Rev.  Jean  Baptiste 
Lajus  in  1732,  Peter  Rescle  1733,  Bernadeis  de 
Garner  1734,  Emmanuel  Crespel  1735,  Pierre 
Verquaillie  1736,  Daniel  1741,  Alexis  du  Buron 
1743,  Bonaventure  Carpentier  1747,  Hypolite 
Collet  1747,  Didac  Cliche  1754,  Antoine  Deperct 
1758,  Father  Denys  Caron  who  died  there  Nov. 
6,  1758. 

There  was  then  a  large  sail  boat  which  made 
regular  trips  between  Fort  St.  Frederic  and  St. 
Johns.  Parties  of  Abenakis  Indians  traveled 
from  place  to  place  camping  on  the  islands  and  on 
the  shores  of  the  rivers  accompanied  by  their 
priests.  We  may  thus  conjecture  that  the  Holy 
Sacrifice  was  offered  in  a  great  many  places  in 
Vermont  from  1731  to  1759.  Fort  St.  Anne  was 
directly  on  their  way,  and  dear  to  them  as  an  old 
place  of  meeting.  They  must  have  stopped  there 
often  and  prayed  on  the  site  of  the  old  chapel, 
•putting  themselves  under  the  protection  of  good 
St.  Anne. 

Montcalm,  Levi,  Bourlamarque,  Bougainville, 
with  their  army,  passed  through  there  on  their 
way  to  Carillon  and  back.  Like  Vice  Roi  De 
Tracy  they  were  men  of  faith.  After  his  great 
victory  at  Fort  Ticonderoga,  1758,  Montcalm  had 
a  cross  planted  on  the  hill  with  this  inscription 
upon  it :     "  Is  it  the  general,  is  it  the  soldier,  is 


95 


u  r 


was 


it  the  fort  we  must  thank  for  this  victory?  No. 
But  in  this  cross  is  the  sign,  is  the  victory.  It  is 
God,  God  Himself,  who  gave  us- the  triumph." 

The  next  year,  1759,  when  he  died  at  Quebec, 
he  received  the  sacraments  with  great  piety  and 
his  last  words  were  a  prayer  to  God  for  mercy. 
It  is  during  this  period  that  grants  of  land  were 
made  on  the  shores  of  the  lake  by  the  French  gov- 
ernment. In  1757,  Bishop  de  Pontbriand,  the 
sixth  bishop  of  Quebec  became  the  owner  of  a 
piece  of  land  of  two  leagues  front  by  three  leagues 
deep,  in  Chazy,  opposite  Fort  St.  Anne.  It  was 
the  grant  made  to  tieut.  dela  Gauchiere  on  April 
20th,  1733.  When  dying  Bishop  de  Pontbriand 
left  it  the  Seminary  of  Saint  Sulpice,  Montreal. 

Shea  says  of  Bishop  de  Pontbriand  that  he  de- 
serves mention  in  the  history  of  the  church  in  the 
United  States,  because  he  thinks  he  was  the  first 
Bishop  of  Quebec  who  performed  any  episcopal 
function  in  the  United  States, having  conferred  con- 
firmation at  Ogdensburg  and  Detroit.  According 
to  the  letter  of  Mary  of  the  Incarnation,  Bishop 
Laval  gav^e  confirmation  in  Isle  la  Motte  in  1668, 
and  has  then  in  this  respect,  precedence  over 
Bishop  de  Pontbriand.  But  he  deserves  especial 
mention  for  his  great  devotion  to  St.  Anne,  being 
born  in  a  diocese  of  Vannes  in  Britanny,  where  is 
the  celebrated  church  of  St.  Anned'Auray.  Com- 
ing to  Detroit  in  1755  he  blessed  there  the  church 
of  St.  Anne,  the  first  church  solemny  blessed  by 
a  bishop  in  her  honor  in  the  United  States. 
Bishop  de  Pontbriand  was  the  last  bishop  of  New 


H    I 


(     Ui 

"I 


ill 

h     ■ 


i'     if 


;  r.j 


I  iwai 


i'M 


■I  ! 


M 


U 


96 


France  for  he  had  the  sadness  to  see  Canada  pass 
into  the  hands  of  the  English.  But  they  did  not 
keep  possession  of  Lake  Champlain  and  Isle  la 
Motte  very  long.  In  June  1760,  Major  Rodgers 
sent  by  General  Amherst,  with  about  300  men  to 
try  and  surprise  St.  Johns  and  Chambly, 
stopped  a  few  days  in  Isle  La  Motte  with 
his  men.  In  May,  1775,  Ethan  Allen  took 
Ticonderoga,  and  in  September,  Major  Gen- 
eral Shuyler  and  Brigadier  General  Mont- 
gomery marching  against  St.  Johns  and  Mon- 
treal, met  at  Isle  La  Motte.  On  the  17th  of 
February  1776,  Congress  appointed  as  commis- 
sioners to  Canada,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Samuel 
Chase  and  Charles  Carroll.  They  requested  also 
Rev.  John  Carroll  to  join  the  commissioners. 

In  a  letter  to  his  mother  Bishop  Carroll  des- 
cribes his  journey.  After  speaking  of  the  travel 
from  Philadelphia  to  New  York,  and  thence  to 
Albany,  Saratoga,  over  Lake  George  to  Ticonder- 
oga, he  says:  "From  his  latter  place  we  embarked 
on  the  great  Lake  Champlain  about  140  miles  to 
St.  Johns.  We  had  a  passage  of  three  days  and  a 
half.  We  always  come  to,  in  the  night  time. 
Passengers  generally  encamp  in  the  woods  making 
a  covering  of  the  boughs  of  trees,  and  a  large  fire 
at  their  feet,  but  as  we  had  a  good  awning  to  our 
boat,  and  had  brought  with  us  good  beds  and 
plenty  of  bed  clothes,  I  chose  to  sleep  on  board." 
After  staying  in  Montreal  from  the  last  of  April 
to  May  12,  Father  Carroll  returned  with 
Franklin  who  was  not  well.     When  a  few  years 


97 


iiJh- 


I  pass 
Id  not 
[sle  la 
dgers 
len  to 
mbly, 
with 
took 
Gen- 
Mont- 
Mon- 
th of 
nmis- 
amuel 
i  also 

• 

1  des- 

;ravel 

ce  to 

nder- 

irked 

les  to 

and  a 

time. 

king 

e  fire 

3  our 

and 

,rd." 

\pril 

with 

rears 


later,  the  question  came  to  choose  the  first  bishop 
for  the  United  States,  Franklin  remembered  his 
companion  on  lake  Champlain,  recommended  him 
and  he  was  chosen  and  appointed  by  the  pope  as 
first  bishop  of  Baltimore. 

A  few  months  after  these  commissioners  re- 
turned from  Canada,  Arnold  aiid  General  Sullivan, 
who  had  taken  possession  of  Montreal  and  Sorel, 
determined  to  come  back.  The  army  was  in  St. 
Johns  on  June  ist,  the  sick  and  the  wounded  were 
vSent  immediately  to  Point  au  Fer  and  Isle  La 
Motte. 

From  the  6th  of  Sept.  1776  to  the  19th  of  the 
same  month,  the  fleet  with  which  Arnold  fought 
the  battle  of  Valcour  against  the  English  was  at 
anchor  at  Isle  La  Motte. 

During  the  war  of  181 2-' 15,  when  the  English 
invaded  the  United  States  by  Lake  Champlain, 
Captain  Pring  was  sent  to  Isle  LaMotte  with  some 
gunboats  to  erect  a  battery  of  three  long  18 
pounders.  Sept.  4th,  18 14,  he  placed  it  so  as  to 
cover  the  landing  of  the  supplies  for  the  English 
vSoldiers,  who  were  preparing  for  the  battle  of 
Beekmantown  and  Plattsburgh  against  the  Amer- 
icans under  Lieutenant  Thomas  McDonough  and 
General  Macomb.  At  the  end  of  the  year  peace 
was  obtained,  and  travel  again  resumed  on  Lake 
Champlain. 

Bishop  Plessis,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
bishops  of  Quebec,  passed  through  Lake  Champlain 
and   by   St,    Anne's  Point   in  18 15.     Monsignor 

4 


m 


'.  m 


'm\ 


I: 

f 


IN 


i;S: 


h 
I 


r 

Hi 


98 


Gagnon,  secretary  of  the  Archives  of  Quebec  had 
the  kindness  to  send  me  a  copy  of  the  letter  in 
which  the  bishop  gives  himself  an  account  of  his 
journey.  He  had  come  from  Halifax  to  Boston, 
New  York,  Whitehall.  There  with  two  Canadian 
priests  and  Father  Matignon  of  Boston,  he  em- 
barked on  the  Boxer  which  made  regular  trips 
from  Whitehall  to  St.  Johns,  P.  Q.  The  Bishop 
says  :  * '  The  Boxer  arrived  at  last  in  Burlington 
in  the  evening  at  sunset.  This  city  is  half  way 
between  Whitehall  and  St.  Johns,  so  that  in  three 
days,  we  had  made  only  25  leagues.  They  can- 
not say  that  we  travelled  too  fast.  A  lady  from 
Burlington,  who  keeps  there  a  good  hotel,  had 
come  down  with  us  in  the  boat  from  Whitehall. 
On  the  way  she  had  become  acquainted  with  the 
priests  and  found  out  that  by  her  husband  she 
was  the  aunt  (grande  tante)  of  Father  Gauvreau, 
(one  of  the  priests  who  accompanied  the  bishop) . 
She  took  occasion  from  this,  to  invite  us  to  her 
house.  We  indeed  went  about  eight  o'clock  in 
the  evening  to  take  tea  with  her.  The  simplicity 
and  kindness  of  this  lady,  who  was  born  a  Prot- 
estant, and  did  not  know  much  what  she  was 
now,  mad^  us  hope,  that  she  would  easily  become 
Catholic,  if  she  had  some  one  to  instruct  her. 
Her  nice  children  would  undoubtedly  follow  her 
example. 

There  are  also  in  Burlington  some  Canadian 
families,  who  would  make  up  about  a  hundred 
Catholics.  With  two  or  three  weeks'  mission 
every  year,  it  would  be  easy  to  form  here  a  Christ- 


*09 


►ec  had 
itter  in 
of  his 
Boston, 
nadian 
le  em- 
ir trips 
Bishop 
iirlgton 
df  way 
ti  three 
ty  can- 
y  from 
el,  had 
tehall. 
ith  the 
nd  she 
vreau, 
shop) . 
to  her 
ock  in 
plicity 
Prot- 
was 
ecome 
!t  her. 
m  her 

ladian 
Indred 
lission 
Ehrist- 


ian  community,  which  would  give  consolation  to 
whomsoever  would  try  to  work  for  it.  But  this 
place  belongs  to  the  diocese  of  Boston.  The 
Bishop  of  Quebec  will  only  urge  Father  Matignon 
to  stop  there  a  few  days  when  he  comes  back  from 
Canada.  This  he  has  done  indeed.  On  his  return 
to  Boston  he  has  been  able  to  tell  his  bishop  what 
can  be  expected  from  this  far-away  portion  of  his 
fold. 

The  city  of  Burlington  is  in  a  very  favorable 
location,  on  one  of  the  most  beautiful  spots  of  the 
shores  of  Lake  Champlain.  Its  streets,  squares, 
public  buildings,  foretell  that  some  day  this  city 
will  become  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  State 
of  Vermont.  Burlington  is  probably  now  the 
most  prosperous  city,  although  it  is  Montpelier 
that  has  been  chosen  for  the  capital.  Until  to-day 
it  is  the  only  city  on  the  lake,  and  here  the  lake 
is  not  less  than  eight  leagues  wide,  if  we  take  the 
oblique  line  to  Plattsbufgh.  It  was  between  nine 
and  ten  when  the  Boxer  sailed  again  with  tho 
wind  good  but  too  light,  and  a  bright  almost  full 
moon.  September  i6th,  1815.  (Archives  of 
Quebec) . 

On  his  return  Father  Matignon  gave  a  mission 
in  Burlington.  On  Sunday,  October  15th,  18 15, 
he  baptized  there  seventeen  children,  from  the  age 
of  one  year  to  the  age  of  eleven.  Rev.  Father 
Neagle,  chancellor  and  secretary  of  the  Arch-dio- 
cese of  Boston,  kindly  copied  the  register  for  me. 
Their  family   names   were  :    Beaulac,    Pelletier, 


\\l 


m 


i 


100 


Desjardins,     Allaire,     Archambault,    I,ongueil, 
Denauld,  Prudhomme. 

From  1818  to  1853,  ^  missionary  priest,  who 
says  Bishop  DeGoesbriand  had  for  his  compatri- 
ots the  true  heart  of  a  father,  went  from  one  set- 
tlement to  the  other  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain.  It  was  Father  Mignault  of  Chambly.  He 
first  built  a  church  opposite  Fort  St.  Anne  at  Cor- 
beau  (Cooperville) .  He  visited  often  Isle  La 
Motte  and  probably  said  mass  on  Sandy  Point. 

Bishop  De  Cheverus,  first  Bishop  of  Boston, 
afterwards  cardinal,  went  by  Lake  Champlain  to 
Montreal  in  1821. 

Bishop  DuBois  of  New  York,  after  visiting  his 
diocese  went  as  far  as  Montreal  and  returned  to 
New  York  by  Isle  La  Motte,  Plattsburgh  and 
Burlington. 

In  August,  1831 ,  Bishop  Fen  wick  second  Bishop 
of  Boston,  traveled  by  boat  from  Burlington  to  St. 
Johns  and  Montreal.  In  October,  1 841,  he  sailed 
along  the  lake,  having  come  by  way  of  Whitehall. 
He  blessed  the  second  church  in  Burlington,  as- 
sisted by  Bishop  Janson  of  Nancy,  France,  and 
from  St.  Albans  they  went  together  to  Longueil's 
mountain,  where  a  large  cross  was  erected. 

When  Arch-bishop  Hughes  of  New  York  came 
to  bless  the  church  of  Plattsburgh,  September  25, 
1842,  he  made  a  trip  along  the  lake  and  admired 
its  beauty. 

The  third  Bishop  Of  Boston,  Right  Rev.  John 
Bernard  Fitzpatrick,  was  on  Lake  Champlain  in 


101 


gueil, 

,  who 
patri- 
le  set- 
'ham- 
.  He 
tCor- 
e  La 
int. 
)ston, 
ain  to 

ig  his 
led  to 
and 

ishop 
to  St. 
jailed 
shall. 
1,  as- 
and 
ueil's 

came 
ir  25, 
nired 

John 
lin  in 


1844  and  1848,  when  he  made  his  visitation  in 
Vermont. 

In  August,  1849,  Bishop  McClosky,  who  was 
Bishop  of  Albany,  and  became  later  arck-bishop  of 
New  York  and  the  first  cardinal  of  United  States, 
came  over  the  lake  to  St.  Albans,  where  he  blessed 
the  corner  stone  of  the  Catholic  church. 

Let  pilgrims,  when  Jhey  come  to  St.  Anne 
of  Isle  La  Motte,  remember  all  the  holy  mission- 
aries and  illustrious  prelates  who  passed  by  the 
same  way,  and  implore  their  intercession  in  heaven 
where  we  hope  they  are  now. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

ST.  ANNK  SENDS  AS    FIRST   BISHOP    OF    BURUNG- 
TON,  RIGHT  RKV.  I..  Dp;  GOBSBRIAND, 

1853-1895. 

From  Oct. 'I,  1674,  when  Mgr.  Laval  became 
Bishop  of  Quebec  until  Nov.  5,  1789,  when  Mgr. 
O' Carroll  became  Biishop  of  Baltimore,  Vermont 
was  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  Que- 
bec. 

From  1789  until  18 10  Vermont  was  a  part  of 
the  DiocCvSe  of  Baltimore,  but  Bishop  Carroll  had 
requested  the  Bishops  of  Quebec  to  continue  to 
give  their  spiritual  care  to  the  Catholics  who  were 
there  and  they  did  so.     In  18 10  Bishop  Cheverus 


i 


102 


being  appointed  to  the  See  of  Boston,  Vermont 
became  a  part  of  his  diocese  with  the  Metropol- 
itan See,  Baltimore. 

The  jth.  Council  of  Baltimore,  considering  the 
great  increase  of  .Catholics,  had  solicited  the 
Holy  See,  to  erect  new  provinces  within  the  do- 
main which  once  formed  the  Diocese  of  Balti- 
more. New  York  was  erected  by  Pope  Pius  IX 
on  the  19th  of  July,  185 1,  into  an  Arch-episcopal 
See,  with  metropolitan  power  over  the  Bishop 
of  Hartford,  Albany,  Buffalo,  and  after  1853,  of 
Brooklyn,  Newark  and  Burlington. 

Archbishop  Hughes  and  his  successors  were 
the  Metropolitans  of  the  Diocese  of  Burlington 
until  Feb.  7,  1875,  when  Boston  became  the 
Metropolitan  See,  with  Most  Rev.  John  Joseph 
Williams  as  first  Archbishop. 

In  the  National  Council  of  Baltimore  held  in 
1852,  the  bishops  decided  to  have  a  bishop  in 
Vermont,  with  the  Episcopal  See  in  Burlington, 
and  through  the  recommendations  of  Bishop  Fitz- 
patrick  of  Boston,  Father  L.  de  Goesbriand  was 
chosen  to  be  its  first  bishop. 

Right  Rev.  L.  DeGoesbriand  was  bom  Aug. 
4,  18 16,  in  the  province  of  Brittany,  France,  so 
devoted  to  St.  Anne,  and  (says  the  Courrier  of 
Ogdensburg,  Feb.  22,  1890)  **a  province  that 
has  yielded  its  full  share  of  the  French  mission- 
ary legion,  whose  achievements  adorn  Catholic 
history.'* 

As  he  approached  manhood,  the  lofty  but 
dimly  defined  aspirations  of  earlier  years  began  to 


103 


rmont 
ropol- 

ig  the 
d  the 
le  do- 
Balti- 
usIX 
scopal 
bishop 
53.  of 

were 
ngton 
e  the 
oseph 

:ld  in 
op  in 
gton, 
Fitz- 
was 

e,  so 
er  of 
that 
sion- 
lolic 

but 
n  to 


take  permanent  form,  began  to  unify,  to  whisper 
the  mysterious  message,  to  call  him  irresistably 
to  the  missionary  field.  After  a  thorough  drill  in 
the  rudiments  of  languages  and  sciences,  he 
entered  at  an  early  age  upon  a  regular  course  in 
a  college  of  his  native  province.  Here  by  care, 
talent  and  untiring  zeal,  he  won  distinction  and 
with  a  mind  well  equipped  for  theological  study 
he  entered  the  renowned  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice, 
Paris.  His  ability,  zeal  and  piety  made  him  the 
welcomed  companion  of  eminent  divines,  and 
after  a  course  of  three  years  in  this  institution  he 
was  ordained  priest  by  Bishop  Rosati,  July  13, 
1840. 

It  was  at  this  period  that  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness periled  the  church  in  America.  Know- 
nothingism  was  then  rampant.  A  priest's  life 
was  not  safer  in  the  avenues  of  Boston  than  in 
the  narrow  streets  of  Pekin.  Thousands  of  Cath- 
olics scattered  throughout  the  Republic,  from  a 
want  of  spiritual  guidance,  were  rapidly  losing 
the  faith.  Catholicity  had  been  pushed  to  the 
very  verge  of  destruction. 

At  this  juncture,  the  American  bishops  sounded 
the  call  for  volunteer  priests  to  the  seminaries 
of  Europe.  To  this  call,  none  responded  with 
greater  alacrity  than  j'oung  Father  DeGoesbri- 
and.  Apostle-like  he  hastily  quitted  the  comforts 
of  France  to  share  the  privations  of  the  New 
World.  Nor  did  he  pause  in  the  seaboard  cities, 
where  his  erudition  and  accomplishments  would 
have  won  him  immediate  distinction,     He  went 


l>.  !' 


M 


m 


104 


across  the  Alleghany  Mountains  into  the  partially 
organized  province  of  Ohio. 

He  was  cordially  welcomed  by  Bishop  Purcell  of 
Cincinnati,  and  was  immediately  assigned  to  the 
charge  of  Louisville  in  Northern  Ohio.  Success 
blessed  his  efforts,  and  he  was  soon  called  to 
the  charge  of  the  rapidly  growing  cities  of  Toledo 
and  Maumee.  Irish,  German  and  French  Catho- 
lics were  pouring  into  Ohio. 

Cleveland  on  Lake  Erie  was  erected  a  diocese 
with  Rt.  Rev.  Rappe  as  its  first  Bishop.  Bishop 
Rappe  wisely  appointed  the  active  Father  De- 
Goesbriand  his  Vicar  General.  He  remained  Vi- 
car General  of  the  diocese  and  Rector  of  Cleveland 
Cathedral  until  1853,  when  he  was  chosen  to  be- 
come Bishop  of  Burlington,  Vermont. 

Bishop  DeGoesbriand  was  consecrated  with 
Bishops  Laughlin  and  Bayley  in  the  Cathedral  of 
New  York,  on  the  30th  of  October,  1853,  by  Mgr. 
Bedini,  assisted  by  Bishop  Rappe  of  Cleveland 
and  Bishop  Fitzpatrick  of  Boston.  Archbishop 
Hughes  of  New  York  preached  the  sermon. 
Bishop  Fitzpatrick  accompanied  him  to  Burling- 
ton, where  he  was  duly  installed  Nov.  6th,  in  the 
old  cathedral  built  and  enlarged  by  good  Father 
O'Callaghan. 

Bishop  DeGoesbriand  found  in  Vermont  10 
churches  and  5  priests.  In  Burlington,  St.  Mary's 
Church  with  Father  O'Callagan  for  the  Irish,  and 
St.  Joseph's  Church  with  Father  Quevillon  for 
the  Canadians.  Father  Daly  attended  the 
churches  of  Castleton,    Middlebury  and  Brandon. 


105 


In  this  last  place  the  church  was  not  completed. 
From  St.  Albans,  Father  McGowan  visited  the 
churches  of  S wanton,  Fairfield  and  Highgate. 
Father  Drolet  was  in  Montpelier  with  the  charge 
of  the  Catholics  of  the  neighboring  towns. 

According  to  the  census  made  by  the  Bishop  of 
Boston,  the  Catholic  population  of  Vermont  was 
591 1  in  1845,  eight  years  later  in  1853  there  must 
have  been  between  9000  or  10,000,  for  immigra- 
tion brought  every  year  hundreds  of  Irish  and  Ca- 
nadians. 

Bishop  Fitzpatrick  who  knew  Burlington  and 
Vermont,  exposed  to  Bishop  DeGoesbriand  the 
first  wants  of  the  diocese  and  the  most  necessary 
work  to  be  done.  In  a  worldly  point  of  view,  the 
prospects  were  far  from  being  encouraging,  but 
for  a  missionary  Bishop  who  was  looking  only  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls  it  was 
a  consolation  to  know  that  there  was  plenty  of 
work  and  much  good  to  be  done.  In  him  Bishop 
DeGoesbriand  put  an  entire  confidence  and  he 
took  for  his  motto,  "  Deus  Providebit"  '*God 
will  provide."  Of  the  many  bishops  and  priests, 
Sons  of  France,  who  helped  to  establish  the  church 
in  the  United  States,  Bishop  DeGoesbriand  was  to 
be  spared  the  longest. 

He  quickly  perceived  the  need  of  more  priests  and 
made  plans  to  find  some  as  soon  as  possible.     Ad- 


i^ 


m 
fi 

M 


r 


1' 

fj 


106 


I 


dressing  himself  to  the  Patroness  of  the  Diocese 
Mary  Immaculate,  he  begged  of  her  to  help  him 
by  her  intercession.  He  had  the  invocation 
printed  and  spread  through  the  diocese  :  *  *  Queen 
of  the  Apostles,  conceived  without  oiiginal  sin, 
ask  the  Master  of  the  Harvest  that  He  may  send 
laborers  iuto  his  Harvest. ' ' 

Bishop  DeGoesbriand  made  journeys  to  France 
and  Ireland  and  obtained  many  priests  who  have 
worked  faithfully  with  him  to  organize  the  diocese 
and  form  parishes.  He  received  also  help  from 
Canada,  particularly  after  1864  when  the  great 
emigration  began  from  that  country  to  the  United 
States.  After  a  few  years  priests  began  to  be  or- 
dained for  the  diocese  and  to-day  there  are  62 
priests  who  labor  in  the  diocese  of  Burlington. 
There  are  78  churches  and  a  Catholic  population 
of  about  53,000.  Brothers  and  Religious  Ladies 
take  care  of  many  academies  and  parochial  schools. 
The  Sisters  of  Providence  have  in  their  beautiful 
asylum  107  orphans. 

An  Hospital  has  just  been  established  in  Wi- 
nooski  under  the  name  of  *  *  Hotel  Dieu  of  Fanny 
Allen'*  in  charge  of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph  from 
Montreal.  They  come  from  that  house  of  the 
Hotel  Dieu  where  the  soldiers  of  Fort  St.  Anne 
received  such  good  care  in  their  sickness.  Father 
DoUier  de  Casson  said  that,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  good  provisions  sent  by  the  Sisters  to  the  sol- 
diers, and  their  solicitude  for  them,  many  more 
would  have  died. 


m 


BISHOP  RAPPE. 


107 


CHAPTER  XVII, 


m 


BISHOP  RAPPE  IN  ISLE  LA  MOTTE. 

THE  BISHOP  OF  BURUNGTON  CEI.KBRATES  THE 
FIFTIETH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  HIS  PRIESTHOOD 
AND  TAKES  FOR  CO-ADJUTOR,  RIGHT  REV. 
J.    S.    MICHAUD. 

Among  those  who  worked  in  Vermont  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  Bishop  DeGoesbriand,  especial 
mention  is  due  to  Rt.  Rev.  Amedeus  Rappe,  in 
the  history  of  Isle  La  Motte.  He  was  bom  in 
the  diocese  of  Arras,  France,  February  2,  1801, 
ordained  priest  in  1829  and  came  to  this  country 
with  Bishop  Purcell  of  Cincinnati  in  1840.  Sent 
to  Toledo,  he  toiled  alone  in  a  wide  district  for 
five  years,  then  Father  DeGoesbriand  became  his 
fellow- worker,  amid  malaria  and  sickness  he  at- 
tended his  scattered  flock,  instructing  carefully 
the  children  in  their  religion.  Being  consecrated 
bishop  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  1847,  he  took  pos- 
session of  the  only  church  that  was  then  in  the 
city  of  Cleveland.  His  visitation  of  the  diocese 
impressed  him  with  the  necessity  of  a  seminary. 
He  opened  one  in  a  building  which  had  been  a 
stable,  Rev.  L.  DeGoesbriand  being  the  first 
superior.  Humble  as  this  seat  of  theological 
learning  was,  the  young  men  who  entered,  all  per- 
severed and  became  priests.  In  a  few  years  he 
had  doubled  the  number  of  churches  and  priests. 


i 
1| 


!i 


ii!! 


108 


Father  DeGoesbriand  had  become  his  Vicar  Gen- 
eral and  occupied  that  charge  until  1853.  When 
his  diocese  was  well  organized  Bishop  Rappe  left 
the  honor  of  governing  it  to  Right  Rev.  Richard 
Gilmour.  Speaking  of  him,  John  Gilmary  Shea 
writes:  "He  was  a  man  of  singular  eloquence, 
speaking  several  languages  with  fluency,  but  de- 
voted himself  especially  to  the  poor  and  to  the 
education  of  children .  Malice  did  not  spare  even 
so  excellent  a  bisbop.  A  time  came  when  Bishop 
Rappe,  finding  that  his  presence  might  prejudice 
the  cause  of  religion,  resigned  his  See  August  2, 
1870,  with  no  repining  and  no  rancor.  He  retired 
to  the  diocese  of  his  old  friend  and  Uow-laborer 
in  Ohio,  Bishop  DeGoesbriand  of  Burlington, 
where  he  labored  as  a  zealous  missionar}'^  and  an 
apostle  of  temperance,  till  his  death,  vSeptember 
8,  1877." 

In  Vermont  where  he  was  welcomed  by  Mgr. 
DeGoesbriand,  Bishop  Rappe  made  his  head- 
quarters in  St.  Albans,  at  the  house  of  Very  Rev. 
Father  Druon.  From  there  he  extended  his  work 
to  all  the  poor  missions  around  leaving  marks  of 
his  great  charity  in  Bakersfield,  Enosburgh, 
Franklin,  Richford,  Swan  ton.  Grand  Isle  and 
particularly  in  Alburg  and  Isle  L<a  Motte.         '^ 

Father  Cam  had  bought  a  building  in  Alburg 
Centre  and  made  a  church  of  it  in  the  centre  of 
what  is  now  the  lot  for  a  Catholic  cemetery. 
There  in  the  corner  of  the  gallery  Bishop  Rappe 
had  his  little  room.  He  visited  and  brought  to 
church  all  the  poor  families  of  the  town,  taking 


109 


generally,  to  drive  him  arouud,  Mr.  Louis  Ther- 
rien,  Sr.,  an  upright  man  and  a  good  Catholic. 
Later  he  built  a  church  in  West  Alburg  Depot, 
with  an  addition  behind  for  a  vestry,  a  room  for 
himself  upstairs  and  a  school-room  below.  He 
often  took  his  meals  and  sometimes  said  mass  at 
the  house  of  Mrs.  Savaria,  a  poor  and  generous 
widow.  But  Isle  La  Motte  was  his  favorite  mis- 
sion. Before  him,  this  place  was,  for  a  few 
years  past,  visited  regularly  by  Father  Cam  of 
Swan  ton,  who  said  mass  in  the  houses.  There 
was  no  church  yet.  Bishop  Rappe  found  about 
thirty  families,  all  poor,  some  of  them  working  on 
farms,  and  the  greatest  number  at  the  quar- 
ries of  Messrs.  Fisk  and  Goodsell,  extracting  the 
blue  and  grey  marble  and  stone,  now  known  all 
over  the  country.  He  bought  of  Mr.  Joseph  Dube 
about  half  an  acre  of  land  for  a  church,  and  im- 
mediately began  the  work,  paying  himself  the 
greatest  part  of  the  expenses.  He  has  left  this 
note  in  the  register  of  Isle  LaMotte  parish.  "We 
had  the  consolation  to  visit  Isle  LaMotte  on  Jan. 
24,  1 87 1.  For  a  long  time,  deprived  of  the  bene- 
fits of  religion,  the  Catholics  of  this  Island  were  in 
a  deplorable  state  ;  but  after  a  few  little  missions, 
they  shook  away  their  moral  and  religious  apathy 
and  surprised  the  Protestants  by  their  zeal  and 
particularly  by  quitting  drunkenness  to  live  in 
the  most  perfect  temperance.  This  good  example 
produced  a  salutary  effect  on  the  people  of  the  Is- 
land, weakened  the  prejudices  against  our  holy 
church,  and  prepared  the  conversion  of  many   re- 


110 


spectable  Americans  whose  names  are  on  our  reg- 
isters. I^et  us  hope  that  their  example  will  .soon 
be  followed  by  others,  who  seem  well  disposed, 
and  will  come,  we  trust,  to  increase  the  little  flock 
of  our  Lord,  and  edify  it  by  the  holiness  of  their 
lives.  Although  few  in  number  and  with  small 
means,  trusting  in  Divine  Providence,  the  thirty 
Catholic  families  who  live  on  this  Island;  so  wor- 
thy of  interest,  have  just  finished  a  pretty  little 
church,  which  the  Bishop  of  Burlington  dedicated 
to  God,  under  the  patronage  of  St.  Joseph,  on  the 
20th  of  November  of  this  year,  1871.  It  was  a 
day  of  joy  for  our  spiritual  children  and  a  recom- 
pense for  the  sacrifices  they  had  made  to  finish  the 
work  they  had  undertaken.  May  the  Eternal 
Pastor  of  Souls  forever  bless  this  little  mission  ! 
May  the  protection  of  good  St.  Joseph  obtain  new 
graces  to  consolidate  the  work  begun." 

One  of  the  sayings  of  Bishop  Rappe  was,  that 
a  Catholic  church  should  never  be  built  without  a 
Catholic  school  to  go  with  it.  It  is  why  he  had 
a  large  school-room  attached  to  the  church,  that 
the  children  might  receive  there  a  good  Christian 
education.  He  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Bishop 
of  Burlington  $1000,  the  interest  of  this  sum  go- 
ing toward  the  support  of  the  school. 

He  bought  in  Rome  a  beautiful  painting  of  St. 
Joseph,  and  in  France  a  richly  carved  gilt  taber- 
nacle for  the  church.  He  also  gave  to  St.  Joseph's 
parish  the  cemetery  on  the  hill. 

For  six  years,  twice  a  month,  the  bishop  was  in 
Isle  LaMott,  for  mass  and  instruction  on  Sunday. 


Ill 


He  had  to  travel  from  St.  Albans  a  part  of  the 
way  on  the  cars  and  the  other  part  in  a  wagon 
or  sleigh  and  sometimes  on  foot.  Many  hours 
he  had  to  wait  on  the  shore  of  the  lake  for 
the  ferry-boat  to  cross,  for  there  was  no  bridge 
then,  crossing  the  lake  sometimes  on  foot  on  the  ice 
when  no  team  dared  to  cross.  No  matter  how 
bad  the  weather,  how  rough  the  lake,  he  was 
always  there  on  the  days  appointed. 

A  good  bell  that  he  put  over  the  church  an- 
nounced that  he  had  arrived,  and  in  the  evening, 
called  the  faithful  to  prayers  and  in  the  moniing 
to  mass.  He  made  his  home  a  part  of  the  time 
at  Dr.  Hyde's  and  the  other  part  at  Mr.  Jos. 
Dube's.  He  loved  to  tell  about  the  first  mis- 
sionaries that  crossed  lyake  Champlain  and  said 
mass  at  St.  Anne's  Fort.  He  expressed  the 
desire  to  acquire  some  day  a  spot  on  St.  Anne's 
Point  where  to  erect  a  cross,  but  he  died  too  sud- 
denly to  be  able  to  fulfill  his  intention. 

He  was  giving  a  mission  in  Keeler's  Bay,  Grand 
Isle,  with  P^ather  Yvinec,  when  he  was  struck  with 
a  sudden  fit  of  sickness  which  in  a  few  days  carried 
him  to  the  grave.  Like  a  good  soldier  of  Christ 
he  died  on  the  battlefield  of  the  missionary,  while 
fighting  against  satan  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  salvation  of  souls,  September  8th,  1877.  His 
death  was  a  great  loss  to  all  the  poor  missions 
around,  but  particularly  to  Alburg  and  Isle  ha 
Motte,  which  he  loved  so  well  and  where  he  was 
so  much  loved  and  respected.  Almost  in  every 
Catholic  house  here  you  find   to-day   the  picture 


112 


of  the  beloved  pastor,  his  name  as  that  of  a  father 
is  recalled  before  the  little  children,  and  all.  Prot- 
estants as  well  as  Catholic,  keep  his  memory  in 
honor  and  veneration,  remembering  his  great  hu- 
mility, his  mortification,  his  zeal  for  the  salva- 
tion of  poor  sinners.  A  service  was  held  in  St. 
Albans  over  his  remains,  which  were  then  brought 
back  to  the  cathedral  in  Cleveland. 

The  faithful  there,  received  in  triumph  the  body 
of  their  saintly  first  bishop  and  paid  him  as  great 
honors,  and  may  be  greater,  as  a  reparation  for 
the  injustice  done  him,  than  if  he  had  not  been 
obliged  to  become  for  a  time  an  exile. 

The  Bishop  of  Burlington  was  sorry  to  be  de- 
prived of  so  good  a  friend,  but  suggested  to  those 
who  deplored  his  loss  that  they  had  now  one 
more  intercessor  in  heaven,  where  he  hoped  with 
us  all  that  his  crown  was  well-earned.  He  sent 
hereafter  a  priest  regularly  every  month  to 
Alburg  and  Isle  La  Motte.  Father  Yvinec 
came  for  many  years  from  Milton  ;  after  him 
Father  Prevost  also  of  Milton  ;  and  then,  for 
about  two  years.  Father  Gaudreau  from  Clarence- 
ville,  Canada.  In  1886  he  formed  a  parish  with 
Alburg,  Isle  La  Motte  and  North  Hero,  and 
Rev.  Joseph  M.  Kerlidou  took  charge  of  these 
missions,  coming  to  live  in  Alburg  in  the  house 
bought  by  Bishop  Rappe  for  a  parsonage. 

Though,  engrossed  by  many  duties,  Bishop  De 
Goesbriand  found  time  to  translate  and  write 
some  very  instructive  and  interesting  books. 
Two  of  them  are  particularly  for  priests:     *'  Med- 


113 


I  father 
.  Prot- 
aory  in 
eat  hu- 
salva- 
l  in  St. 
»rought 

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itations  for  the  Use  of  the  Secular  Clergy,"  from 
the  French  by  Father  Chaignon,  a  work  in  two 
large  volumes,  and  ' '  The  Manual  of  the  Clergy 
in  the  U.  S."  The  others  are  made  for  the  fam- 
ily library :  *  *  Catholic  Memoirs  of  Vermont  and 
New  Hampshire, "  * '  The  History  of  Confession, ' ' 
*'  History  of  the  Worship  of  God,"  and  his  most 
precious  and  valuable  work,  rendered  yet  more 
attractive  by  Benziger  Brothers  of  New  York, 
who  published  and  illustrated  it,  ''  Christ  on  the 
Altar."  It  is  very  instructive  for  the  intellect, 
consoling  to  the  heart,  and  an  ornament  in  the 
parlor. 

Years  have  passed  by  since  Bishop  DeGoesbri- 
and  began  his  apostolic  labors  in  the  United 
States.  He  was  only  thirty-seven  years  old  when 
he  was  made  a  bishop  and  he  appeared  younger 
yet.  This  gave  occasion,  one  day,  to  an  incident 
which  he  narrates  in  his  usual  pleasant  way  of 
telling  a  story  :  He  was  making  his  visitation  in 
the  parish  of  Highgate,  with  Rev.  Father  Cam, 
when  a  good  Canadian  looking  at  him  with  a 
suspicious  air  made  the  remark:  "  You  are  very 
young,  sir,  to  be  a  bishop,"  and  as  there  was 
silence,  added  gravely,  "  but  I  suppose  you  are 
old  enough  to  know  what  you  are  doing." 

When  in  1890  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his 
ordination  to  the  priesthood  was  celebrated,  with 
fitting  pomp  and  ceremonies,  the  bishop  still  en- 
joyed very  good  health.  Bishops,  priests  and  all 
his  spiritual  children  in' Vermont,  congratulated 
him.     He  received,  as  it  is  usual  on   such   occa- 


^BSl 


114 


sions,  many  valuable  gifts.  One  of  the  most 
precious  was  a  crosier,  or  a  bishop's  pastoral  staff, 
of  solid  silver  filled  with  precious  stones,  presented 
by  the  priests  of  his  diocese,  as  a  token  of  their 
love  and  respect. 

Five  years  have  elapsed  since.  The  bishop  is 
now  going  on  seventy-nine.  He  has.  been  fifty- 
five  years  a  priest,  forty-two  years  a  bishop.  His 
labors  and  his  life  remind  us  of  the  labors  and 
lives  of  Bishop  Laval,  Cheverus,  Flaget  and 
Brute,  holy  prelates  whose  names  have  a  glorious 
place  in  the  history  of  the  church  in  America. 
The  bishop  continues  to  work,  but  now  he  has  a 
co-adjutor,  one  of  his  children  of  the  diocese  of 
Burlington,  Right  Rev.  J.  S.  Michaud. 

Bishop  Michaud  was  born  in  Burlington,  No- 
vember 24,  1843.  His  father,  Mr.  Stephen 
Michaud,  who  was  born  in  the  parish  of  St. 
Andre,  Isle  du  Portage,  in  the  Province  of  Que- 
bec, tame  to  Burlington  about  1836.  His  mother, 
Catherine  Rogan,  from  the  Cojinty  of  Connaught, 
Ireland,  anived  in  Burlington  about  the  same 
time.  They  were  married  July  11,  1841.  Mr. 
Stephen  Michaud  (as  the  bishop,  his  son,  told  us 
on  the  day  of  his  consecration) ,  had  contributed 
generously  towards  paying  the  expenses  of  the 
first  St.  Joseph's  church,  Burlington  ;  and  his 
mother,  having  become  a  widow  in  1847,  gave 
also  her  share  for  St.  Mary's  Cathedral.  Paying 
to  his  parents  the  homage  of  filial  love,  he  at- 
tributed, in  part,  to  their  generosity  to  the  church, 
the  great  honor  conferred  on   him  on  that  day,  as 


"^  f 


115 


God,  who  has  said:  "That  a  glass  of  water 
given  in  His  Name  shall  not  go  unrewarded," 
always  blessed  the  parents  who  make  sacrifices 
for  Him,  and  also  blesses  their  children.  Bishop 
Michaud  began  his  college  studies  with  the  Sul- 
pician  Fathers  at  Montreal  College,  and  finished 
rhetoric  and  philosophy  with  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
at  the  College  of  the  "  Holy  Cross,"  Worcester, 
Mass.  He  entered  St.  Joseph's  Provincial  Sem- 
inary of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  and  upon  the  completion 
of  his  theological  studies  was  ordained  priest  June 
7,  1873.  In  September  of  the  same  year,  Bishop 
DeGoesbriand  sent  him  to  Newport,  Vt.  There 
was  no  church  nor  parsonage.  When  he  left  in 
May,  1879,  on  the  slope  of  the  mountain  above 
Lake  Memphremagog,  could  be  seen  the  pretty 
church  of  "  St.  Mary,  Star  of  the  Sea,"  with  a 
house  for  the  priest  in  a  beautiful  location.  As- 
sisted by  Rev.  J.  M.  Coathuel,  he  also  attended 
from  Newport,  Lowell,  Albany,  Island  Pond, 
Barton,  Wells  River  and  Ely,  living  the  life  of  a 
true  missionary. 

Trusting  in  his  ability  as  a  business  man  and  a 
builder,  and  knowing  his  great  love  for  the  or- 
phans, the  Bishop  called  him  to  Burlington  to  su- 
perintend the  work  of  the  new  orphanage,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  took  charge  of  the  Irish  par- 
ish in  Winooski  and  dedicated  a  church  for  them 
in  honor  of  St.  Stephen,  in  memory  of  his  father's 
name. 

The  Congregation  of  Bennington  was  increasing 
every  day  and  their  church  was  too  small.     Ap- 


116 


pointed  pastor  of  St.  Francis  of  Sales,  Benning- 
ton, in  October  1885,  Father  Michaudsoon  began 
the  construction  of  a  new  church,  and  in  a  few 
years,  he  had  up  one  of  the  finest  churches  in  the 
diocese  of  Burlington,  his  latest  monument  to 
earnest  parochial  work. 

For  two  or  three  years,  Bishop  DeGoesbriand, 
felt  more  than  usual,  the  weight  of  his  many  pas- 
toral duties,  as  he  was  advancing  in  age,  and  his 
health  failing,  he  thought  he  would  ask  for  him- 
self a  faithful  co-adjutor,  and  secure  for  Burling- 
ton, if  God  called  him  away,  an  able  and  revered 
Bishop.  Rev.  Father  Michaud  was  elected  co- 
adjutor in  Rome,  with  right  of  succession  April 
7th,  1892.  His  consecration  took  place  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Burlington,  June  29th,  1892.  The 
consecrating  prelate  was  Most  Rev.  J.  Williams, 
Archbishop  of  Boston,  assisted  by  Right  Rev.  H. 
Gabriels,  Bishop  of  Ogdensburg,  and  Right  Rev. 
D.  M  Bradley,  Bishop  of  Manchester,  N.  H.  It 
was  a  day  of  joy  for  the  venerable  Bishop  DeGoes- 
briand, for  the  newly  consecrated  Bishop,  for  his 
old  mother,  who  was  the  first  to  receive  his  bles- 
sing, for  the  people  of  Burlington  where  he  was 
bom,  for  the  people  of  Bennington  whose  pastor 
he  was  and  for  the  people  of  Vermont  in  general, 
as  he  was  universally  known  and  esteemed  by 
Protestants  as  well  as  Catholics. 

Now  Bishop  DeGoesbriand,  conforming  himself 
more  and  more  to  the  Divine  Model  who  has  said: 
"  Learn  of  me  that  I  am  meek  and  humble  of 
heart"  continues  to  govern  the  diocese.     Bishop 


117 


lop 


Michaud  makes  the  pastoral  visits,  gives  confirm- 
ation, and  does  all  the  most  fatiguing  work.  Every 
morning  at  six  Bishop  DeGoesbriand  says  mass 
for  the  orphans  of  St.  Joseph's  Asylum,  he  then 
spends  the  day,  always  occupied  at  the  Episcopal 
house.  When  there  is  any  great  celebration  in 
the  parishes,  he  is  happy  to  go  to  preside  at  it. 
Very  happy  was  he  when  on  the  5tli  of  August 
1894,  four  arch-bishops,  eight  bishops  and  many 
priests,  with  thousands  of  people,  some  from  every 
parish  of  the  diocese,  gathered  at  the  Cathedral  of 
Burlington  for  the  translation  of  the  relics  that 
he  had  brought  on  his  last  journey  to  Rome  and 
the  Holy  Land  :  A  ring  of  the  chain  of  St.  Peter 
that  had  been  given  him  by  Pope  Leo  XIII  ;  and 
a  large  fac-simile  of  the  whole  chain.  To  see  the 
Bishop  of  Burlington  and  after  him,  Archbishop 
Williams  of  Boston ,  Archbishop  Corrigan  of  New 
York,  the  celebrant  of  the  mass,  Archbishop 
Fabre  of  Montreal,  Archbishop  Duhamel  of  Otta- 
wa, Bishop  Gabriels  of  .Ogdensburg,  Bishop  Brad- 
ley of  Manchester,  who  preached  such  an  elo- 
quent sermon.  Bishop  La  Rocque  of  Sherbrooke, 
Bishop  Decelles,  co-adjutorofSt.  Hyacinth, Bishop 
Michaud,  co-adjutor  of  Burlington,  to  see  all  these 
distinguished  prelates,  surrounded  by  many  priests 
and  thousands  of  people  carrying  the  relics  to  the 
beautiful  shrine  prepared  for  them  in  the  Cathe- 
dral was  a  noble  sight.  It  brought  to  mind  the 
remembrance  of  those  grand  ages  of  faith  when 
Christian  kings  and  princes,  traveled  hundreds  of 
miles  to  go  and  venerate  the  relics  of  the  saints, 


118 


and  prized  as  much  tlie  gift  of  a  relic,  as  the  pos- 
session of  a  kingdom.  To  revive  the  faith  and  to 
increase  it,  there  is  nothing  better  than  such  de- 
monstrations, where  human  respect  is  banished 
away,  and  the  belief  in  the  Communion  of  Saints 
is  publicly  proclaimed. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

BISHOP    DK  GOKSBRIAND    FOSTERS    DEVOTION   TO 

ST.    ANNE    IN    VERMONT.       HE    PRESIDES    AT 

THE  FIRST  PILGRIMAGE  AT  ST.  ANNE  OF  ISLE 

'      LA   MOTTE,  BLESSES   THE    NEW    CHAPEL    AND 

CONSECRATES   HIS   DIOCESE  TO  ST.    ANNE. 

Bishop  DeGoesbriand  had  not  been  long  in 
Vermont,  when  he  found  out  that  the  first  settle- 
ment by  Catholics  had  been  dedicated  to  St.  Anne. 
After  reading  the  history  of  New  France  he  took 
notes  and  published  then  a  small  book  on  the  de- 
votion to  St.  Anne  in  the  diocese  of  Burlington, 
giving  a  summary  of  the  information  which  he 
had  found  and  adding:  "  It  is  a  long  time  since 
Fort  St.  Anne  has  been  destroyed,  so  that  many 
persons  in  our  own  State  know  nothing  about  its 
history.  To  us,  however,  it  is  a  pleasant  recol- 
lection to  know,  that  devotion  to  St.  Anne  was 
inaugurated  so  many  3^ears  ago  in  our  diocese. 
God  grant  us  grace  to  see  it  spread  amongst  us. ' ' 


119 


)  > 


One  of  the  the  first  churches  built  in  the  dio- 
cese, five  years  after  the  bishop  came,  was  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Anne,  in  Milton,  Vt.  The  corner- 
stone was  blessed  June  5,  1859,  ^^^  ^^^^  church 
Sept.  12,  1866  ;  just  two  hundred  years  after  the 
first  chapel  of  St.  Anne  in  Isle  La  Motte. 

This  church  of  Milton  was  accidentally  burnt 
January  18,  1894,  and  rebuilt  larger  and  more 
beautiful  by  Rev.  Father  Mathieu,  and  blessed  on 
St.  Anne's  feast  of  the  same  year. 

There  are  few  churches  now  in  the  diocese 
which  have  not  a  statue  of  St.  Anne.  The  school 
in  Swanton  is  dedicated  to  St.  Anne,  and  ht  r 
statue  can  be  seen  in  the  chapel  and  in  evei 
school-room.  Father  Cam  was  the  first,  aftt 
two  hundred  years,  to  become  the  pastor  of  Isle 
lya  Motte.  Like  the  first  pastor.  Father  Dollier, 
he  is  also  a  Breton. 

In  St.  Joseph's  church,  Burlington,  a  beautiful 
altar  has  been  built  to  receive  the  statue  of  St. 
Anne.  This  statue,  bought  by  Rev.  J.  Cloarec, 
is  very  large,  and  probably  one  of  the  finest  in 
the  country.  It  represents  the  Saint  in  a  sitting 
position,  with  the  child  Mary,  reading  from  a 
book  held  up  by  her  mother.  Seldom  can  be 
found  an  image  whose  aspect  inspires  more  devo- 
tion. The  ladies  of  St.  Anne  forming  a  confra- 
ternity in  the  parish,  love  to  come  to  pray  before 
it,  and  have  good  care  that  tapers  and  flowers  are 
never  wanting  around  it. 

In  the  Cathedral,  St.  Anne  has  also  a  fine  mar- 
ble altar.     It  was  consecrated  on  July  25,  1884, 


u 


i 


120 


by  the  bishop.  The  statue  is  a  gift  of  one  of  the 
lady  members  of  the  congregation,  who  gave  it  as 
a  memorial  to  her' own  mother. 

St.  Johnsbury,  St.  Albans,  Winooski,  Ver- 
gennes,  Rutland  and  many  other  churches  have 
their  altars,  statues  and  societies  of  St.  Anne. 
For  many  years  it  had  been  the  wish  of  the  bishop 
to  see  the  cross  erected  to  mark  the  spot  where 
stood  the  first  chapel  of  St.  Anne  in  Isle  La 
Motte.  In  1892  Mr.  H.  H.  Hill  sold  him  the 
piece  of  land  that  he  owned  on  Sandy  Point  and 
contains  that  part  of  the  fort  where  the  first 
chapel  was  located.  He  told  the  priest  who  had 
charge  of  Isle  La  Motte,  Rev.  J.  Kerlidou,  to 
have  the  ground  cleared  and  to  erect  a  small 
sanctuary  with  the  statue  of  St.  Anne  for  the 
26th  of  July,  1893.  This  was  done  with  the 
help,  freely  given,  by  the  Catholics  of  Isle  La 
Motte.  The  children  of  the  vSchool  with  their 
teachers,  Miss  Mongeon  and  Miss  Weber,  doing 
their  good  share.  These  school  children  with 
those  of  the  Catholic  school  of  Alburg,  were  the 
first  after  two  hundred  years  to  take  possession  of 
the  ground  and  to  sing  there  hymns  to  the  good 
St.  Anne. 

The  little  chapel,  13  feet  by  9  feet,  was  built 
by  Mr.  David  Vincelette  of  Swanton,  during  the 
month  of  June,  1893.  He  also  made  a  large 
crOvSs  32  feet  high.  The  quarry  men  of  Mr.  Fisk 
gave  the  stone  to  make  a  platform  and  steps 
around  it. 

While  they  were  doing  this  work  on  St.  Anne's 


121 


Point,  Bishop  DeGoesbriand  was  in  Jerusalem, 
and  sang  mass  in  the  church  built  over  the  house 
of  good  St.  Anne,  and  prayed  that  she  might 
bless  in  his  diocese,  thousands  of  miles  away,  the 
little  spot  that  he  would  soon  once  more  dedicate 
to  her. 

As  stated  before,  while  he  was  in  Rome,  Rev. 
Father  Cap  tier,  who  is  now  the  Superior  general 
of  the  Sulpicians,  gave  him  a  relic  of  St.  Anne, 
and  a  small  piece  of  the  garment  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary,  in  a  small  silver  case,  with  authen- 
tic papers  proving  that  the  relics  are  true  and 
genuine.  On  his  return  to  Burlington  he  gave 
them  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Anne  of  Isle  I^a  Motte 
to  be  venerated  by  the  pilgrims. 

Although  just  arriving  from  such  a  long  jour- 
ney, Bishop  DeGoesbriand  came  himself  on  July 
26,  1893,  to  bless  the  chapel  of  St.  Anne,  the 
statue,  the  high  cross  erected  on  the  Point,  and 
also  the  well  dug  inside  of  the  old  fort. 

As  a  Sulpician  priest,  Father  Dollier  had  been 
the  first  Chaplain  of  St.  Anne,  1666,  the  father 
superior  of  Montreal,  Rev.  Father  Colin  allowed 
one  of  the  priests  of  Notre  Dame,  Rev.  Father 
Chevrier  to  come  and  sing  mass,  and  as  the  Jesuit 
missionaries  had  been  the  first  to  give  a  mission 
to  the  soldiers  in  1667,  the  father  Superior  of 
Jesuits  allowed  Rev.  Father  Jones  to  come  to 
preach.  Two  boats  had  been  liired  for  the  occa- 
sion. *'  The  Reindeer,"  v/ith  Bishop  DeGoesbri- 
and, Rev.  Father  Cloarec  and  many  other  priests 
brought  the  pilgrims  of  Burlington  and  Winoos- 


122 


ki ;  * '  The  Williams  ' '  brought  the  pilgrims  of 
Swan  ton  and  St.  Albans  under  the  direction  of 
Father  Cam  and  many  other  priests.  After  land- 
ing its  passengers  ' '  The  Williams  ' '  proceede^l  to 
Rouses  Point  and  took  the  pilgrims  of  Champlain, 
RoUvSes  Point  and  Cooperville  with  Rev.  Father 
Chagnon,  Charbonneau  and  Thomas. 

The  first  mass  was  said  by  Rev.  J.  Kerlidou  of 
Alburg,  assisted  by  Rev.  Jean  Marie  Gelot  of 
Fair  Haven,  and  hymns  were  sung  in  French  and 
English,  Miss  Dunning  of  Swanton  playing  the 
organ.  During  high  mass  the  Burlington  choir 
sang.  Rev.  Father  Chevrier  had  Rev.  Jean  Marie 
Coathuel  of  Burlington  as  deacon,  and  Rev.  Father 
Cartin  of  Pike  River  as  sub-deacon.  There  were 
around  the  chapel  about  2000  people,  although 
the  weather  was  not  favorable  in  the  morning. 

After  Father  Jones  had  delivered  his  eloquent 
sermon,  our  good  bishop  said  a  few  words  in 
Frenc.i  and  read  the  following  consecration  to  St. 
Anne  : 

**  Oh,  great  St.  Anne,  who  through  an  admira- 
ble privilege  wast  chosen  to  be  the  mother  of  the 
Holy  Virgin,  mother  of  Christ,  on  this  thy  feast 
day,  we  raise  our  eyes  to  thee  in  heaven,  we  behold 
thee  in  spirit  seated  near  the  throne  of  thy  glori- 
ous daughter,  full  of  grace,  crowned  with  glory. 
We  joyfully  unite  our  hymns  of  praise  to  those  of 
the  saints  and  angels  in  heaven,  and  with  them  all 
we  return  thanks  to  God,  for  the  blessings  he  con- 
ferred upon  thee. 

' '  Behold    thy    children    prostrate   before   thy 


1 


123 


image  ;  iu  this  spot  which  has  been  placed  under 
thy  protection  more  than  200  years  ago,  on  this 
spot  where  the  Holy  Sacrifice  was  offered  for  the 
first  time  in  that  part  of  America  which  now  forms 
the  diocese  of  Burlington.  Over  200  years  ago 
was  the  vSpot  on  which  w^e  stand  sanctified  by  the 
prayers,  the  suiferings  and  the  death  of  many  fer- 
vent Christians,  and  by  the  privation  and  labors 
of  many  prelates  and  missionaries. 

''Bless  anew,  O  great  St.  Anne,  this  spot  of 
ground  which  is  dear  to  thee.  Vouchsafe  to  renew 
here  the  favors,  spiritual  and  temporal,  which  are 
daily  obtained  in  thy  most  celebrated  sanctuaries. 

' '  Be  pleased  to  accept  once  more  the  offering 
which  the  bishop  makes  to  thee,  on  this  day,  of 
his  person,  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  his  diocese. 

' '  Hear  the  prayers  of  all  those  who  will  come 
here  to  obtain  relief  in  their  temporal  necessities, 
but  more  especially  pray  for  the  conversion  of  sin- 
ners and  the  perseverance  of  the  just,  who  will  in- 
voke thee  before  thy  image  in  this  shrine. 

"  Behold  us  prostrate  before  thy  statue,  O  St. 
Anne,  thou  whose  soul  is  now  in  heaven.  Accept 
the  resolutions  which  we  now  form  ever  to  love,  ever 
to  venerate  thee  ;  and  to  do  all  in  our  power  to 
make  thee  known  and  venerated  by  others. 

* '  With  these  prayers  and  sentiments  we  will 
now  kiss  the  relic  of  thy  blessed  body,  which  was 
once  the  dwelling  of  thy  most  holy  daughter,  the 
Holy  Virgin,  Mother  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

The  bishop  read  this  consecration  with  much 
emotion  and  strength,  kneeling  down  on  the  steps 


124 


1 1 


ii 


of  the  chapel,  his  emotion  being  shared  by  the  pil" 
grims  who  listened  in  silence,  and  when  he  had 
finished,  said  with  their  whole  heart,  Amen.  Rev. 
Father  Cloarec  gave  them  the  relics  to  kiss. 

In  the  afternoon  the  cross  on  the  Point  was  sol-- 
emnly  blessed  by  the  bishop,  after  a  few  earnest 
words  said  in  French  by  Father  Millot,  one  of  the 
Oblate  Fathers  of  the  Sacred  Hearts  from  Keeler's 
Bay. 

Then  the  bishop  blessed  the  well  and  many 
drank  of  the  water  and  carried  some  home  with 
them. 

About  four,  the  pilgrims  left,  happy  to  have 
spent  a  day  for  God,  singing  as  in  the  morning 
hymns  to  the  good  St.  Anne. 

The  Pilgrimage  had  brought  to  the  Point,  be- 
sides the  pilgrims  and  the  Catholics  of  Alburg. 
and  Isle  LaMotte,  a  great  number  of  strangers. 
They  generally  behaved  in  a  gentlemanly  manner, 
Some  had  come  to  see  the  crowds  and  the  boats, 
some  to  witness  the  ceremony  and  hear  the  ser- 
mon, and  some  also,  ignoring  probably  the  law  of 
the  State,  which  on  such  occasion,  protects  all  re- 
ligious societies,  even  Catholics,  had  come  to  set 
tables  and  run  opposition  to  the  Catholic  ladies 
who  had  provided  and  prepared  plenty  of  every- 
thing necessary  for  the  wants  of  the  pilgrims. 
Conspicuous  among  those  who  enjoyed  the  sight, 
was  Mr.  Watson,  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  known 
citizens  of  the  Island.  His  land  also  extends  on 
the  Point,  it  being  now  in  the  name  of  his  chil- 
dt'en.     Taking  a  great  interest  in  everything  that 


I 


125 


may  bring  spiritual  and  material  improvement  to 
Isle  LaMotte,  without  bigotry  and  prejudice,  and 
not  too  greedy  for  money,  he  gave  a  hearty  wel- 
come to  all,  in  his  genial  and  kind  way. 

The  first  pilgrimage  landed  on  the  old  dock  tem- 
porarily repaired,  which  is  on  the  Messrs.  Pike's 
land,  they  kindly  giving  permission  to  use  it  that 
year. 

During  the  winter  of  1893 — 1894,  a  good  dock 
was  built  on  St.  Anne's  land  by  Mr.  Frank  Cas- 
avoy  of  Burlington. 

A  house  was  also  built  near  the  chapel  as  a  fu- 
ture residence  for  the  chaplain,  and  a  large  pa- 
vilion to  shield  the  pilgrims  from  the  sun  and  the 
rain. 

In  1894,  there  were  five  different  pilgrimages. 
On  June  27th,  "The  Maquam"  with  Captain 
Hawley  brought  the  children  of  St.  Anne's  school, 
S wanton,  under  the  direction  of  Rev.  J.  L.  M. 
Cam  and  their  teachers.  The  children  of  the 
Catholic  school's  of  Alburg  and  Isle  LaMotte  were 
waiting  for  them.  They  all  formed  in  procession 
and  went  before  the  chapel  where  Father  Cam 
said  mass  while  the  children  prayed  and  sang 
hymns. 

On  July  eighteenth,  the  pilgrimage  of  St.  Jo- 
seph's parish,  Burlington,  prepared  by  Rev. 
Father  Cloarec,  arrived  on  "  the  Reindeer." 

Bishop  DeGoesbriand  was  again  with  the  pil- 
grims. He  felt  happy  to  see  the  piety  of  his  chil- 
dren who  in  great  numbers  received  Holy  Com- 
munion,  and  remarked  that  this  was  a  true  and 


A 


126 


holy  pilgrimage.  Rev.  Father  Cloarec  had  in- 
vited the  orphans  of  St.  Joseph's  Asylum  to  come 
with  the  pilgrims.  It  was  a  beautiful  and  consol- 
ing sight  to  see  them  all,  boys  and  girls,  so  neat 
in  their  purple  dresses  and  so  pious  during  the 
office,  the  Sisters  of  Providence  watching  like  good 
mothers  over  them. 

The  procession  in  the  afternoon  was  very  fine, 
the  readies  of  St.  Anne  with  their  insignias,  be- 
ing very  numerous.  They  sang  and  recited  the 
rosary  during  the  procession. 

Some  remarkable  favors  were  obtained  through 
St.  Ani/iC's  intercession  at  this  pilgrimage. 

The  Parish  of  the  Nativity  of  Swanton  came 
this  yci-.' Oil  July  25th,  by  the  Steamer  "  Ma- 
quam."  Kev.  Father  Robillard,  assistant  of 
Rev.  D.  Sullivan  of  St.  Albans,  many  pilgrims 
from  St.  Mary's  parish  having  accompanied  him, 
sang  mass.  After  the  procession  in  the  afternoon, 
benediction  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  was  given, 
it  being  the  first  time  since  1666  that  our  lyord 
solemnly  blest  St.  Anne's  Point  and  its  pilgrims. 

Among  those  who  came  this  year  was  a  father 
of  family,  who  had  made  the  pilgrimage  to  thank 
God  for  a  special  grace  received  a  year  ago  and  to 
ask  also  the  grace  of  perseverance.  St.  Anne's 
day,  July  26th  was  particularly  for  the  parishes 
of  Isle  LaMotte,  Alburg  and  North  Hero.  Rev. 
Father  Meloche,  S.  J.  of  Montreal,  had  given  a 
retreat  of  a  few  days  as  a  preparation.  Three 
masses  were  said  at  the  shrine  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Ker- 
lidou  at  seven,  by  Rev.  J.   M.  Gelot  at  8.30  and 


127 


by  Rev.  Father  Videloup,  oblate  of  the  Sacred 
Heart  at  lo.oo.  Two  sermons  were  given  by  Rev. 
Father  Meloche  one  in  French  and  one  in  English. 

Although  the  crowd  was  great  there  was  no 
disturbance. 

A  lady  of  Isle  I^a  Motte,  Mrs.  Cyprien  Peron, 
left  on  this  day  one  of  her  two  crutches  in  St. 
Anne's  chapel.  Rev.  Father  Fournier,  Superior 
of  the  Oblate  Fathers  of  Plattsburgh  and  rector 
of  St.  Peter's  parish,  had  proposed  to  come  in 
1893,  with  his  people,  but  could  not  on  account 
of  bad  weather.  In  1894  he  chose  Sunday,  July 
29th  for  his  pilgrimage  day.  Arrangements  were 
made  with  Superintendent  Rochelot  for  the 
steamer  "  Chateaugay,"  one  of  the  finest  steam 
ers  on  Lake  Champlain.  The  pilgrims  landed  at 
about  ten.  The  order  for  the  procession  had  been 
given  and  it  was  easily  formed  by  the  Reverend 
Fathers.  They  had  everything  to  make  it  splen- 
did :  the  processional  cross,  the  society  of  the 
Sacred  Heart  of  Mary,  the  Ladies  of  the  Immacu- 
late Conception  with  their  banners,  a  statue  of 
St.  Anne  to  be  carried  b}^  four  ladies,  the  Ladies 
of  the  Rosary,  the  Choir,  the  Altar  boys  and  the 
clergy. 

High  mass  was  sung  by  one  of  the  fathers. 
The  choir  under  the  direction  of  Father  Petit, 
rendered  perfectly  well  the  Royal  Mass  harmon- 
ized. It  was  a  real  pleasure  for  the  people  of 
Isle  La  Motte  to  hear  such  fine  singing.  Father 
Chagnon,  who  had  come  with  a  party  of  twelve 


128 


friends  in  a  small  steamer  from  Champlain  gave  a 
very  appropriate  sermon  in  the  morning. 

Vespers  were  sung  at  three  o'clock  and  Rev. 
Father  Fournier  was  giving  his  people  an  elo- 
quent instruction,  when  a  great  storm  came  which 
interrupted  the  ceremonies.  All  had  time  to  re- 
tire to  the  boat  before  the  rain  began,  and  when 
the  weather  cleared  again,  it  was  time  to  return. 

Besides  this  large  pilgrimage,  there  were  dur- 
ing the  summer  and  fall,  hundreds  of  Catholics 
who  came  nearly  every  day  to  pray  in  St.  Anne's 
chapel,  and  drink  of  the  water  of  the  well. 

Right  Rev.  Bishop  Michaud,  co-adjutor  of 
Burlington,  after  making  his  visitation  in  Al- 
bufg  and  Isle  I^a  Motte,  made  a  particular  pil- 
grimage in  1893  and  1894,  to  the  shrine  of  St. 
Anne. 

Bishop  DeGoesbriand  having  erected  a  confra- 
ternity of  St.  Anne,  and  named  Rev.  J.  Kerlidou 
director  of  this  confraternity  for  the  present,  the 
director  will  live  at  St.  Anne's  house  during  the 
summer.  He  will  keep  there  the  register  of  the 
confraternity  and  will  inscribe  on  application,  the 
names  of  those  who  desire  to  become  members. 
He  will  also  say  mass  at  St.  Anne's  altar  for  the 
intention  of  any  person  who  will  personally  or  by 
letter  request  him  to  do  so. 


ve  a 


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120 


THE    I^INK    FROM    THE    CHAIN  OF  ST. 

PETER. 

It  was  by  accident,  or  rather  through  a  kind 
intervention  of  Providence,  that  a  few  days  before 
starting  for  Jerusalem,  toward  the  end  of  April,  I 
discovered  that  there  were  in  the  church  of  St. 
Cecelia,  in  Rome,  a  few  links  of  the  chain  of  St. 
Peter,  wherewith  he  had  been  bound  in  the  Mam- 
ertine  privSon.  No  attention  seemed  to  be  paid  to 
this  fact,  probably  because  of  the  more  remarka- 
ble chain  kept  in  the  Basilica  of  the  chains  of  Si, 
Peter. 

I,  however,  became  convinced  that  these  links 
were  of  undoubted  authenticity.  What  a  blessing 
if  I  could  obtain  one  of  them,  and  carry  it  to  Bur- 
lington !  But  in  this  case  I  was  plainly  told  by 
the  Cardinal  RampoUa,  protector  of  St.  Cecelia 
church,  that  only  on  an  order  of  the  Pope  could  I 
obtain  the  coveted  precious  relic.  I  did  not,  how- 
ever, lose  courage,  and  on  the  eve  of  my  departure 
from  Rome  to  Jerusalem,  having  obtained  an  au- 
dience from  his  holiness,  I  made  bold  to  ask  for 
one  of  the  links.  I  remarked  to  L,eo  XIII  that 
the  presence  of  such  a  relic  in  Burlington,  would 
be  a  means  to  instruct  our  people  about  the  life 
and  mission  of  St.  Peter,  and  the  authority  of  his 
successors.  The  Pope  did  n*  =:  seem  inclined  to 
grant  the  request,  but  said  that  on  my  return  from 
Jerusalem  the  decision  would  be  given. 

On  the  4th  of  this  month,  June,  1893,  I  was 
again  in  the  presence  of  our  august  Pontiff,  Leo 


m  -itrrMMMMMfai 


180 


XIII.  His  Holiness  did  not  recognize  me,  but 
he  remembered  his  promise,  and  when  I  men- 
tioned the  link  he  said  :  "Is  it  you  ? —  The  deci- 
sion is  favorable.  Tell  the  Cardinal  Protector  of 
St.  Cecelia  to  detach  one  of  the  links,  and  give  it  to 
you  with  authentical  letters.^''  Those  who  love 
the  great  shepherd  of  the  sheep y  will  easib  lagine 
what  our  feelings  were  when  we  heard  those 
blessed  words  !  Glory  be  to  God — we  now  pos- 
sess in  Burlington  the  great  chain,  a  fac  simile, 
and  the  more,  much  more  precious  link  of  the 
original  chain. 

I  can  hardly  refrain  from  tears  when  I  think  on 
this  matter,  for  I  see  before  my  eyes,  the  horrible, 
damp,  dark  dungeon  at  the  foot  of  the  Capitol.  I 
vsee  in  spirit  the  pillar  to  which  Peter  and  Paul 
were  chained,  by  order  of  Nero,  in  thi^  orison. 
The  link  which  we  possess  is  not  a  fac  He,  it 
has  reall}^  come  in  contact  with  the  emaciated 
body  of  Peter,  and  perhaps  cut  the  flesh  of  his 
arms  or  feet  to  the  very  bone,  and  this  torture 
lasted  nine  whole  months  !  Oh  how  valiant  were 
the  soldiers  of  Christ  !  But  for  the  church,  for 
ourselves,  it  was  that  they  suffered. 

We  intend,  as  soon  as  possible,  to  have  a  pre- 
cious shrine,  or  reliquary,  made  for  the  reception 
of  the  great  chain  and  of  the  link,  and  they  will 
be  presented  a  few  times  in  the  \'ear  to  the  vene- 
ration of  the  faithful. 

An  indulgence  of  seven  years,  to  be  gained  once 
in  the  day,  is  granted  to  those  who,  venerating 
either  of  the  two  relics,  will  devoutly  sa}^  five 


181 


Paters  and  Aves,   according  to  the  intentions  of 
the  Holy  Father,  being  sorry  for  their  sins. 

To  those  who,  after  Confession  and  Communion, 
will  devoutly  visit  the  Cathedral  Church  of  Bur- 
lington, on  the  first  clay  of  August,  or  on  either 
of  the  seven  following  days,  and  then  pray  for 
some  time,  according  to  the  intention  of  the  Holy 
Father,  plenary'  indulgence  is  granted. 


i 


%    # 


PRAYER. 

God,  who  didst  cause  that  the  blessed  Peter, 
having  been  freed  from  his  chains,  should  escape 
uninjured  ;  free  us,  we  pray  thee,  from  our  chains 
of  sin,  and  drive  uway  from  us  all  evils.  Through 
our  L/ord,  etc.,  etc. 

St.  Peter  pray  for  us. 
Laus  Deo. 

Notice. — The  great  chain  and  the  link  ma}' 
be  venerated  during  the  octave  of  Sts.  Peter  and 
Paul,  June  29th,  also  from  August  ist  to  August 
8th,  inclusively.  Provided  pilgrims  come  accom- 
panied by  a  priest. 


Ti^BLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


TICKET  OF  ADMISvSION. 


PAGE. 


statutes 3 

Novena 5 

Prayers 20 

Ivifeof  St.  Anne.    Hymns 22 


CHAPTER   I. 

Why  do  Catholics  have  so  much  devotion . 


39 


CHAPTER  II. 


I^ife    '■  St.  Anne 40 

St.  Aune  of  Jerusalem 48 

St.  Anne  near  Auray 49 

St.  Anne  of  Beaupre 53 


CHAPTER  III. 

Devotion  to  St.  Aune  in  the  Diocese  of  Burlington 56 

Isle  lya  Motte 61 

Father  Jogups  in  Islel«a  Motte 62 

Choice  of  a  site  for  the  fort 65 

Con.stniction  of  the  fort 66 

The  first  mass 68 

The  first  chapel ...  70 

Death  of  de  Chazy 71 

Reudez-vous  in  Fort  St.  Anne 73 

Sickness  at  Fort  St.  Anne 77 

Mr.  Dollier  at  the  fort 79 

Three  Fathers  at  the  fort 81 

Bishop  de  I^aval  at  the  fort 83 

Distinguished  travellers 90 

Iv.  de  Goesbriand  first  Bishop  of  Burlington loi 

Bishop  Rappe  in  Isle  t,a  Motte 107 

Bishop  de  Goesbriand  fosters  devotion  to  St.  Anne 118 


APPENDIX. 

The  lyink  from  the  chain  of  St.  Peter. .. 


129 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Iraageof  St.  Anne 5 

Isle  I^a  Motte 61 

Bishop  de  I^aval 83 

Bishop  Rappe  107 

The  present  chapel 120 

The  lyink  from  the  chain  of  St.  Peter. 129 

Table  of  contents 132 


PAGE. 

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..  loi 

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--  132 


lo 


